


Diplomacy

by nightspear



Series: Daniel of Abydos [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 13:51:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 222,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3070538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightspear/pseuds/nightspear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Sequel to "Translations." Daniel must learn to find his place in the SGC and on Earth, but, starting with an unexpectedly eventful return to Abydos, things become more complicated than anyone could have anticipated. Explicit spoilers up to late season 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Duty and Deception, Part I

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This is the sequel to "Translations" and follows directly from it. If you didn't read the first story, you will be rather confused.
> 
> In the last book, Daniel was pulled into the SGC as a victim and chose a way for himself not to remain helpless; in this installation, he learns what it means to take on the adult-like responsibilities that come with his decision. Again, events sometimes fall a little out of sequence, things repeated from canon missions tend to be treated in an off-screen or missing scenes way unless it happens differently here, and aliens don't speak English without an excuse. Blocks of dialogue in italics indicates that a foreign language is being spoken.

**_10 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 0830 hrs_ **

"No," Robert said flatly when Daniel met him coming in for work that morning.

Daniel frowned. "What? Just like that--'no?'"

"Yes." Robert glanced at the notebook in his hands and continued past him toward their office.

"It's not some big issue like you think it is," Daniel said, speeding up to match Robert's pace. "It's just something Sam suggested."

"Well, of course _they're_ going to be trying to make you military."

"It's not..." Daniel huffed. "Just for some basic courses or BCT. Or something."

Robert shook his head. "You can do better than that."

"It's a good school. It _is_ ," he insisted when Robert gave him a look. "Sam studied there, and she's one of the most intelligent people here. I dare you to deny that."

"Okay, first, Captain Carter did not get her PhD at the Air Force Academy, and second, she's a scientist."

"So are you."

"She's a _physical_ scientist," Robert clarified. "People don't join the Air Force because they want to be archaeologists. There are, like, two other people here who do any archaeology at all. Just Lithell on SG-7 and, uh, whatshisname, the guy on SG-3--"

"Captain Recceo. And he's a marine," Daniel corrected. Besides, SG-3 was primarily a combat team, not research, so no one on that team usually acted as an archaeologist.

"See? And they're always off-world, anyway, so... My point is, the Air Force Academy isn't the right place to learn this stuff."

"I know, but...it's the right place to go for the Stargate program," Daniel said.

"That's what this is about?" Robert said. "Really? Come on, you really want to join the military, _Cadet_ Jackson?"

"There's nothing wrong with the military," he said, though he admitted silently that his name sounded odd with a rank attached to it. "And I'm just talking about...taking courses from them or reading the books they use. General Hammond said I probably could, too. Languages and things. Unofficially taking courses. What's wrong with that?"

"Oh, I don't know, you could go after a degree," Robert said, "and you'll get better training at a civilian school that actually offers majors you're interested in. You could be good at this, Daniel. I mean, you remember the Daniel Jackson who came through the mirror?"

"As if you would let me forget," Daniel muttered. Robert wasn't shy about bringing up the alternate _him_ when he was trying to make a point. "He was smart. I understand."

" _And_ he was on SG-1 without being military."

Daniel sighed, because it was a point that frustrated him in more ways than one. There were differences between the position and authority the alternate... _him_ had held and Daniel's own status. The other had had enough clout to oppose convention without worry of losing his place at the SGC. "He opened his reality's Stargate; they wouldn't have _not_ let him onto a team."

"Like they're gonna kick you out of here," Robert scoffed. "They wouldn't've let him on SG-1 if his expertise weren't valuable--cultures, mythology, archaeology, languages--"

"I speak Goa'uld better than he did," Daniel said defensively, "and at least three Egyptian dialects he didn't. Maybe even more." Well, more _fluently_ , anyway.

"Yeah, well, he spoke about fifteen languages that _you_ don't."

" _Earth_ languages, which are derivatives of more ancient tongues and aren't as useful off-world," he automatically countered, not wanting to admit he was just a little--tiny--bit envious of that. "Anyway, he was older and had more--"

"--more training. Like in college, and grad school after that."

Daniel scowled. "Robert, I'm not going to waste ten years trying to get every degree that an alternate 'me' had."

He had agreed to think about Sam's suggestion of Air Force training, mostly because the Academy was nearby and because many of the personnel on base still looked at him like he didn't belong here. Even Teal'c was more easily accepted by some of them, since he was one of the best warriors here, even if he was alien. Besides, most of the Tau'ri Daniel _knew_ were either enlisted airmen and marines or had come from one military academy or another.

It was part of adapting to this new culture, wasn't it? It was about...well, not quite survival, but it was the difference between thriving in the SGC and being marginalized within it.

On the other hand, many of the civilian scholars seemed to have a certain amount of either apprehension or condescension toward the military, and certainly some of that sentiment was returned. And Robert had a point--Daniel wanted to join an exploration team, and if he had to adapt to military rules for that, but he was a researcher first. Even Teal'c, who taught him to fight, didn't try to change that. But Daniel had no official authority at all. He was lucky to be regarded as well as he was and knew he had to blend in enough, or that regard could easily turn to suspicion or disdain. Just as his parents had assimilated into the Abydonian culture, he needed to become part of this culture if he wanted to accomplish anything.

Not that that would stop him from speaking when he was right about something. But sometimes, when it didn't hurt anything, he would need to bend.

"You could get all those degrees," Robert was saying. "Take some time away from here to go to school, and then come back. I'm not saying you have to, and not right this second, obviously," Robert added when Daniel crossed his arms. "But you need to learn from other people besides me. I'm not a teacher."

"Of course you are."

"I'm basically a grad student who got, like, an emergency promotion to department head. It's not the same thing, Daniel."

"What's not the same about it? You've been teaching _me_ for a year."

With a frustrated huff, instead of answering directly, Robert said, "Look, there are only a few subjects you really need to work hard on to pass the GED--you could do that in a year, I'll bet. It'll be good to get some basic knowledge about subjects you missed growing up, anyway, if you're sticking around on our planet."

Daniel sighed at his persistence. "Robert--"

"You're not even fifteen yet; you've got time to think about it," Robert insisted. "Just _think_ about it. Okay?"

"Fine, I'll think about it," he said, partly to make Robert stop bothering him and partly because it wasn't like he had to make a decision soon, anyway.

"Fine," Robert said. "So now...how far did you get through that book?"

Daniel passed over the history book Robert had picked for him. "Through the first four sections."

"Uh huh," Robert said absently, thumbing through the indicated pages. "You read all this? Are you just reading through, or taking notes and..." Daniel opened a notebook and waved it in Robert's line of sight so the pages of notes were visible. "Never mind, you geek. Do you sleep? You know, ever?"

Daniel rolled his eyes, closing and collecting his books. "I usually spend time training with Teal'c before or after work, but SG-1 has been on Nasya for the last few days, so I've had a lot of extra time."

Also, the general had been willing to give him a chance at the SGC, true, but there would always be restrictions holding him back until he at least caught up to the minimum educational requirements. He wouldn't be a full employee here until he passed a test that showed he knew the names of Earth's countries and how to do math, which, really, was a little ridiculous, since it wasn't like the GED was going to prove that he could translate alien languages.

Besides, Daniel wasn't sure he would be staying on Earth for as long as that kind of education planning suggested. If they found Skaara and Sha'uri, maybe things would change. Who knew when they might reach some turning point in the war against the Goa'uld?

But Robert was the one who had control over hiring personnel in this department, and he had insisted. Daniel knew it was well-intentioned, despite how illogical it was, so he would study and learn the things Tau'ri people learned in high school. It turned out that learning it wasn't actually all that bad, after all; Earth's history and mythology was tied closely to many of the Goa'uld's, and maybe learning things like basic physics would make him feel just a little less stupid when Sam tried patiently to explain some device to him.

Robert stepped into the linguistics office next door to drop off a reference book they had borrowed earlier, then returned, repeating, "I don't get why SG-1's still on the Nasya mission. They made contact, and now we're trying to set up a long-term research station--that's usually _our_ thing more than theirs. Or at least one of the other teams."

"They reported back over the weekend that it was a Goa'uld planet until a few hundred years ago," Daniel told him. "Their language is very close to Teal'c's dialect of modern Goa'uld. A research team is supposed to replace them in a few days."

"Huh. Well, maybe the general will let us go along," he mused. "I should ask him. You're the best Goa'uld speaker here besides Teal'c, so he'll have to let you go, and then he'll have to let _me_ go, too, to keep an eye on you," he reasoned triumphantly. "Hey, you're pretty useful."

"Thanks, Robert," Daniel said dryly, but he reveled quietly in the knowledge that they might _both_ actually be allowed to go see Nasya if Robert recommended it, now that General Hammond was approving more off-world trips for them.

He looked up at the clock as they reached the office, then picked up the smaller of two piles on Robert's desk. "These are the assignments you want me to take for today?" Daniel asked, opening the first folder to see which he was supposed to do first. "What... You want me to cover debriefs? Are you sure?"

"Two teams got back yesterday with stuff that needs to be looked at. SG-3 videotaped something one of the natives off-world said to them, and they're looking for a translation. SG-5 had some artifact with--"

"--with ' _unfamiliar script_ ,'" Daniel read from the notes of SG-5's preliminary report. "' _...did not recognize the..._ '"

"That's the one. And look at the writing, obviously, but I want you to listen to what they say about the planet and see if there's anything else important about the artifact that they didn't notice."

"Um. Robert, don't _you_ usually sit in on meetings when there's a cultural question?" Daniel said. "I thought the point was that I don't know enough about artifact analysis."

Robert shrugged. "You can identify what's out of place, or if something looks suspicious, even if you don't know exactly what it is. We'll discuss after if you're not sure. And you've gone with me to enough debriefings--it'll save time if only one of us has to sit through them."

"So why me and not you?" Daniel asked.

"Because I'm the boss and I say so," Robert said as he sat down at his desk. "You're more likely than anyone to recognize off-world languages. Recceo thought the people they recorded sounded Egyptian. If you don't think you can figure it out, bring the recording back up here, and we'll see if anyone in the department recognizes it."

"I didn't say I couldn't do it," he said defensively, skimming through the reports as he turned to leave so he could look at the video before the first debriefing at 1030. "I'll figure it out."

Robert snorted. "You do that."

Daniel started out, then stopped when he opened the last folder in the pile. "Robert?" he asked, poking his head back in. "What's this?"

The archaeologist raised his eyebrows. "Captain Carter asked me to give that to you. Homework."

" _Ay_ ," Daniel muttered, frowning at the sheet of math problems Sam wanted him to finish. "Can I do this after SG-3's debriefing?"

Robert shrugged. "Whatever. Just have it done before Carter gets back."

...x...

**_10 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1100 hrs_ **

"And you're certain Ma'at was no longer there?" Daniel asked, pulling off his glasses and looking up from the notes he had jotted down while watching the video and listening to the recorded speech. "The Goa'uld, I mean."

"Like we said," Colonel Makepeace said, sounding half-impatient and half-bored, "there were no signs on the planet that we could see. That's what the guy was saying?"

Daniel nodded. The speech had been an Egyptian dialect, and though it was closer to how Teal'c would have pronounced it than it was to the Nagada dialect, it was easy enough for him to understand. "He said their goddess left many generations ago. That's likely why they were so anxious when SG-3 arrived," he added, gesturing toward the mission report. "They must have thought you were gods yourselves, or at least sent from Ma'at."

"Uh-huh. Not the first time that's happened, and it probably won't be the last," Makepeace remarked. "Is that it?"

"Ye...no, one more thing. The man said that he wanted to give your team a...an offering of some kind, or a gift? Was there something he gave you?"

"Yeah, he gave us a bag of rocks," Makepeace said.

"Uh. Sorry? Rocks?" Daniel repeated.

"No, seriously, Jackson," Captain Recceo spoke up, "they were little pebbles in a bag. Rocks."

"Was that their form of currency or something?" he asked, frowning. "Were they precious rocks of some kind?"

"How should we know?" Makepeace said. "We took 'em to the lab on twenty-first for analysis. Seemed pretty useless, if you ask me, unless you're looking for paperweights."

Finding things that were uninteresting was fairly common--not everything could be a miraculous high-tech device. Still, Daniel was learning that the military teams and the research departments often disagreed on exactly what 'interesting' meant. He might not be a trained archaeologist, but Robert was right--he'd picked up enough over the past months that he thought he could at least recognize most of the time whether or not it was something Robert should look at. That was the whole point of having civilian researchers here with different mindsets from the military personnel, anyway, wasn't it?

"Do you mind if I see them first, sir, before they start any tests?" he asked, directing the question to General Hammond.

"That's fine, Mr. Jackson," the general told him easily. "Let us know if you find anything."

"And, Colonel, do you want a copy of the translation, once I write it out?" he asked Colonel Makepeace.

"Not particularly," the colonel told him.

"Keep a copy in Records," General Hammond suggested. "Is there anything else? Any of you?"

"No, sir" echoed around the table, and they stood again, preparing to leave--

The alarms blared.

 _"Medical emergency in the embarkation room!"_ Sergeant Harriman's voice said. " _SG-1 and refugees returning from Nasya under heavy fire--all security teams, medical personnel, and medics to the embarkation room immediately! I repeat--_ "

"Move, Jackson," someone next to him barked. Used to the protocol now, Daniel jumped aside by habit, standing out of the way to let military personnel pass. If there was trouble in the embarkation room, the people with medical or combat training went first.

SG-1, though...that meant Jack, Sam, and Teal'c, under _heavy fire_...

Once all of SG-3 had rushed out of the briefing room, heading toward the armory, Daniel made to follow, only to stop again when the general ordered him sharply, "Stay out of the 'gate room!" Then the general left, too.

Daniel let out a wordless sound of frustration into the empty room. Even the window here was useless, since the shields had been lowered, so he hovered near the staircase connecting the briefing room to the control room, straining his ears. After the third muffled sizzling sound he heard, he cocked his head and tried to figure out what it was. When he couldn't decide whether it was from an energy weapon hitting a wall or hitting flesh, he quickly stopped trying to think about it.

Then, finally, _finally_ , came the now-familiar sound of the wormhole closing, and Daniel reasoned that the general hadn't said anything about watching from the back of the control room.

By the time he arrived, everything was already over. He scanned the people's faces through the control room window and relaxed fractionally when he saw all of SG-1 on their feet.

Then he took a second look and realized that, though the Stargate was again inactive, the situation was nowhere near 'over.'

 _'Medical emergency_ ' was right--it wasn't the first time the SGC had received refugees, or even wounded ones, but it _was_ the first time that the 'gate room had filled with injured so quickly. As he watched, horrified, two people rushed out through the side blast door, carrying a third between them on a stretcher. Jack was giving a hurried report to General Hammond, the one familiar sight among all the Nasyans' burned or bleeding forms, while Teal'c assisted with first aid and transport.

Sam, oddly, didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Daniel inched forward, squinting down at her for a closer look, because, barring other complications, she should be helping the medics.

Unless she was hurt herself--there was something red on her face that could have been blood...

But then Jack walked up behind her, no doubt asking if she was all right. From the easy way she moved as she jumped in surprise and then answered, Daniel could see that she was as unharmed as the rest of the team and let out a relieved breath.

He lingered another minute, shifting indecisively from foot to foot, then huffed impatiently and turned back to the briefing room to wait for his orders.

He'd just barely stepped back in when Robert came running, calling, "Daniel!" Someone rushed past him, and he scuttled to one side, saying, "There's a massive overflow of Nasyans, most wounded. We need everyone who speaks Goa'uld to help with interpreting. Come on. Who else speaks it at all? Us two, Teal'c...?"

"Um--one or two more," Daniel said, following Robert out with a mixture of anxiety at what was clearly a dire situation and relief to be doing something. "Lieutenant Hagman knows a little; he can help if he has a dictionary. And most people know a few stock phrases, so--"

"Right, Hagman's upstairs. I'll go get him from the office. You go to the infirmary and help Dr. Fraiser with whatever she needs. Teal'c's busy with the heavy lifting now, but he'll probably join us later to help with information gathering."

"Yeah. Okay." Daniel took a final glimpse at the flurry of action in the embarkation room.

"Daniel--"

"Sorry, I'm going, I'm going," he said quickly starting to move away.

"No, that's not--wait, Daniel!" Confused, he stopped. Robert looked over his shoulder, clearly impatient as well, then said, "Some of these people are badly wounded--burns, mostly, and other injuries; it's not pretty. Tell me right now if you don't think you can--"

"I can," he interrupted, remembering the times he'd had to run past bodies smoking from Jaffa staff weapons and hoping he wasn't lying now. Without waiting for any more warnings _(hoping there weren't any more to give)_ , he hurried past Robert to the elevator, leaving the man to catch up to him. "What will happen to them all?" he asked. "What exactly am I supposed to say?"

"Transport's on its way to the Mountain," Robert said, a little breathlessly, jogging to pull even with him. "The most critical ones need to be stabilized here first, and then they're going to the Air Force Academy hospital. The rest--what we need from you is to get as much information from them as possible to keep track of all the Nasyans. We're trying to keep numbered tags on each of them to keep track--"

"Tags?" Daniel echoed.

"Yeah, like hospital ID bracelets. This way we won't lose track of anyone," Robert said. "So you need to get names, what they remember of the attack, what might have caused it, anything."

"Atta--they were _attacked_? By whom?"

"Uh...I don't think we know? But you'll probably piece it together yourself before long if you talk to enough people."

They reached the elevator just as the doors were closing and squeezed in together, along with two medics and an SF handling two patients between them.

Daniel couldn't see any injuries on the first patient, but he was unconscious, so something must be wrong. The other, though, was a woman whose wounds were all too visible. She was unconscious as well, and covered with a blanket as she lay on the gurney, but her arms had been left uncovered, as well as her face.

 _Burns_ , an objective part of his brain realized, but the rest of him was caught wondering whether the redness of the woman's skin was from blood or from the heat of whatever had caused her burns, and _(ay naturu)_ surely human flesh couldn't look and smell like that and still be alive...

"What are you two doing here?" one of the medics snapped, doing something with an IV line from his side of the gurney. "Emergency protocols are in effect--"

He was interrupted by a moan, because the woman wasn't only alive, she was waking up, too...

But when her hoarse, pain-filled wails started, all thoughts of blood and fire fled Daniel's mind, and he pushed past Robert to the side of the gurney, moving so that his face was directly over the woman's and holding his empty hands up in the universal gesture to show he wasn't threatening her. " _Kel shak, kel shak! Tel nok'tiak ma'waé. Cal mah._ "

Her eyes, wide with pain and terror, fixed on his face above hers and the cries subsided to whimpers. _"Keestra_..." she moaned.

" _Te keestram_ ," he promised, watching her unsuccessfully fight the fall back into unconsciousness. _"Shashan. Cal mah, nok. Cal mah. Te keestram._ "

" _That's_ what he's doing here," Robert whispered to the medics when both patients were out again.

"What'd you say?" one man asked.

"Uh...it's safe, we're friends, we'll help you..." Daniel told him, backing away from the gurney and twisting his hands together to hide the way they shook. He took a steadying breath. "Robert, can we teach people how to say simple things like that, at least, to keep them calm?"

"Yeah, I know, I will. I caught, uh, ' _cal mah_ ;' that means 'sanctuary?'"

"Sanctuary, safe. And..." The elevator opened, and Daniel stepped out to let the medics and the patients through. "And, Robert--"

Robert stayed in the car to reach the 18th level. "We have the preliminary dictionaries upstairs--we'll look up whatever else we need," he said, instructing, "Go with them, I'll be right there."

Daniel nodded at the closing elevator doors and started making his way toward the infirmary, only to realize for the first time just how many wounded refugees there were _(hundreds, surely)_ , because immediately, he could see the people still being carried through the halls, a few lying on gurneys or pads serving as make-shift beds in the hallway until someone rushed them inside.

That wasn't even the worst part, in a way--the ones not hurt, and the ones with only minor injuries, were frantic and trying to speak to anyone wearing a Tau'ri uniform, which only made everything worse when neither party understood what the other was saying and the Tau'ri tried desperately to stop them from leaving without injuring anyone further.

Janet was nowhere in sight--she must be in the infirmary itself, which, gods, must be at least as chaotic as it was out in the halls--but medics, nurses, and anyone else not off-world were all doing their best to contain the situation.

" _No_ , Colonel," he heard someone say.

Jack's voice said, "Dammit, then _you_ calm her down, Johnson--"

"We're already running out of space; we can't go around sedating people on top of that!" Nurse Johnson countered. Daniel turned to see the two of them struggling with a hysterical young woman, clearly trying to be gentle while trying to make her stop moving. She was barely standing on her own, but it didn't stop her from trying to pull away.

" _Where is he?_ " she was nearly sobbing in her Goa'uld dialect and beating weakly at them with obviously burnt fists, pushing away the soaked gauze the nurse had in her hand. " _My husband--let me go, what have you done with him, I beg you, I have to find him, let me go, let me go, let me--_ "

" _Listen to me!_ " Daniel said loudly, also in Goa'uld. Other heads also turned his way, but he ignored them for the moment and ran toward the woman in Jack's grip. " _We will find him,_ " he said, even though he knew it might be false optimism. " _Please do not fight us--others are hurt, and we need your--_ " What was the word for 'cooperation'? "Uh... _You must...not fight us so we can help others._ "

" _Help us?_ " she repeated.

" _Yes. You are with friends._ " Daniel glanced at Jack, who looked like he wanted to step in but thankfully stayed silent. " _My name is Daniel. He is Jack. We are your friends. We brought your people here to help you._ " She stopped struggling but continued to look around herself nervously. " _Your name?_ " he tried.

" _Talia_ ," she said finally.

" _Talia, go with..._ " 'Nurse?' 'Doctor?' Jaffa didn't need healers, so Teal'c had never thought to teach him the Goa'uld equivalent. " _Go with this woman. She will help you, and soon we will take you somewhere else to..._ um... _help your...injuries. We will look for your husband._ "

Jack looked at him sharply when the Nasyan--Talia--collapsed limply into the support of their arms. "Daniel?"

"She'll cooperate if you need to treat her," he said as an answer. Johnson nodded and helped the woman to a free space, guiding her down to the floor against a wall. "Jack, where's Janet?" The man hesitated for a moment. "Jack!"

"In the infirmary, why?"

"I'm supposed to report to her and gather whatever information the Nasyans have," Daniel said, starting to make his way there and trying not to look at the still, quiet--and some not-so-still-and-quiet--Nasyans lying in the hallway on sheets...gods...

"Might have to wait on those interviews," Jack said, looking around as if trying to identify which cluster of people to try to break up next.

" _Stop--get away from me!_ " someone called. " _Where have you taken us?_ "

He turned to see a man trying with little success to push away a medic and climb to his feet despite the blood-stained bandage wrapped around his leg. Daniel started toward him and almost crashed into Jack as they both moved the same way at the same time.

Jack met his eyes. _Don't get stubborn now_ , Daniel thought, straightening his spine. _Let me help_.

Nodding once, Jack said, "I'll tell Fraiser you're out here. Be careful."

"Robert and others are coming," Daniel said, relieved, already hurrying to the wounded Nasyan. "Jack--tell people _'cal mah_.' It means 'safe.'" Without waiting for an answer, he dropped to his knees beside the injured man, forcing himself to look at the eyes and not the wounds. " _C-cal mah_ ," he said uncertainly, then caught sight of the plastic band someone had wrapped around the man's wrist, hastily labeled '156.' Daniel pulled a small notepad from his pocket, labeled the page with the number, and said more firmly, " _You are safe, with friends. What is your name?_ "

...x...

**_10 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1800 hrs_ **

A hand fell on his shoulder. "Daniel."

Daniel looked up wearily and wondered when Jack had gotten there. "I thought that was everyone in the infirmary," he said, pushing himself away from the wall he'd been leaning against to rest and looking around the nearly empty hallway. "Someone else?" He had been splitting his time between the halls, where some of the uninjured were still huddled, and one of the side wings, while Teal'c and the others worked in the larger, main areas of the infirmary.

"No, no, stop," Jack ordered, grabbing his arm and pulling him to a halt when he started to move mechanically toward the door. "It's done, Daniel. They're moving these two"--he looked at the remaining Nasyans in the hall--"into the temporary bunk rooms. The last of the critically injured were just stabilized and taken to the hospital."

Already? He turned toward the man now being led away. "Oh. _Mahiu debehen_...uh, _ahtaj_... _yi shay!_ " He rubbed his eyes and tried to focus. "Um. Wait, I need to ask that man about the...the thing. The attack. I was going to in just a minute--"

"You already did," Jack said.

"No I..." Daniel blinked. In truth, he couldn't remember whether he had or not. "I did?"

"Yeah," Jack said gently, despite the obvious fatigue in his expression. He jerked his head toward the infirmary. "I just saw you telling Rothman and Fraiser. Check your notes--I'll bet the guy's name is in there."

"Oh." He squinted at his notepad but couldn't really tell--he'd stopped trying, at some point, to remember which face went with which name. It had all begun to blur together in a haze of numbers and names and the same account of 'I-don't-know' over and over...how long ago had they started? "What time is it?"

"SG-1 got back from Nasya almost seven hours ago," Jack said. "And you're making even less sense than usual, so it's time for you to sit down and breathe for a minute."

"I make sense some of the time," he protested without thinking, but followed mindlessly to a chair set against the wall and dropped gracelessly into it.

Jack stuck his hands into his pockets, his lips twitching a little in amusement. "You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?"

Daniel thought that, if he hadn't been so tired, he could have thought of a good response to that. How _was_ he so tired, anyway, when it was barely 1800 hours? A lot of the trained men and women here could literally work for intense days at a time, and here he was, already resisting yawns. "It's really...it's all done?"

"All done, kid," Jack said looking down at him with a smile. "You did a good job. Now...I know some of what you saw today..." Jack hesitated.

"It wasn't pretty," he said, guessing what Jack was going to say and borrowing Robert's words.

"You all right?"

"The others worked with the most badly wounded," Daniel said, "because they just had to try to keep people calm for the medics and give basic information and instruction. Teal'c and I can actually hold a conversation in Goa'uld, so we were"--( _mostly_ )--"talking to the people who were...uh, well, still able to hold a conversation. No one really knew anything, anyway. About the attack."

Jack raised his eyebrows, unappeased. "So...you all right?"

 _I learned today that staff blast wounds don't bleed very much, because the heat burns away the part of the flesh that would have bled._ "Yes," he said. "How many...I mean..."

"We saved over two hundred people, including the wounded," Jack said.

Daniel knew some people hadn't made it--he'd seen far too many of the refugees taken away covered with a sheet--but a whole planet...surely there had to have been more than two hundred people living there. And he was certain there had been many more brought to the SGC, even--there was a page in his notebook labeled '301,' which meant... "But how many--"

"Over two hundred Nasyans are alive, Daniel," was the firm answer.

Biting his lip, Daniel looked down and nodded. "Okay. That... Okay. Right." Suddenly, he realized he was talking to Jack, which he'd been hoping to do ever since the alarms sounded that morning. "Wait, what about SG-1? Everyone's fine?"

"Looks like it," Jack said, taking a seat next to him with a groan. "A little sore, maybe, but we're all okay. Teal'c is finishing up with some of the Nasyans while Carter...well, I'm sure she's doing something, somewhere. Usually is."

"Good." Daniel yawned.

Jack quirked a smile. "Long day, huh. Wait 'til you try your hand at boot camp sometime."

"I missed SG-5's debriefing this afternoon," he said inanely, then wondered which rogue part of his brain that thought had come from.

"Yeah," Jack snorted, "I'm pretty sure that was rescheduled, kid. You may have noticed a bit of a situation around here recently."

" _Ti'u_ ," Daniel agreed, not bothering to put in the effort to drag out the word in the right language.

Jack shook his head. "When's the last time you had something to eat? Wanna join me?"

_("I can't do anything else for this man--I'm giving him a dose of painkillers and a sedative. I'm sorry," the doctor said, packing up his equipment and hurrying to the next patient._

_The Nasyan man moaned and whispered, "_ What...what did he say? _"_

 _"_ He said... _" Daniel started, unsure, then lied,_ _"_ He said you're going to be okay _._ Sleep. _")_

"I'm not hungry," he told Jack in a would-be casual tone that ended up sounding anything but.

"I know," Jack said quietly. "C'mon. Let's get out of the Mountain." Daniel couldn't help turning to look back toward the infirmary, half expecting Robert to come out and tell him something was wrong and he needed to get up and do something. He blinked as a body stepped into his line of sight and looked up to see that Jack had stood and moved to block his view. "There's nothing we can do here right now; they're just cleaning up. We'll assess the situation tomorrow."

"They're being relocated to some other planet?"

"Yeah, the three new teams and SG-1 are gonna be looking into that tomorrow. Dr. Fraiser will be at the Academy hospital most of the day..." Jack grimaced a little, then said, "We're gonna need interpreters here on base and someone over at the hospital, just in case. Teal'c sticks out in public a little more than you, and we need him helping with off-world business from here, so..."

"I don't mind if you need me to go to the hospital," Daniel said honestly.

"I thought you'd say that," Jack sighed. "It's about the safest place you could be, anyway, with that much security around. But that's tomorrow. For now, whaddya say we go home?"

"Sure," he answered, taking Jack's hand and pulling himself out of his seat. "Sounds good."

XXXXX

**_11 June 1998; USAF Academy Hospital, Earth; 1030 hrs_ **

"Cassandra," Daniel greeted, stepping into Janet's office at the hospital the next day, where the girl was waiting while Janet checked on her patients. Cassandra looked up as he came in and let the door fall shut behind him, a few of her fingers yellow from what looked like paint.

"Hi, Daniel," she said, smiling politely. "I've never seen you come here before."

"I've never been here before. I was talking to some of the patients. Ja--your mother said I could stay in here with you for a while." Until, or unless, one of the patients needed something that no one else could understand. "I haven't seen you in over a month."

"I haven't seen you, either," she said.

"Oh. That's...true," he said intelligently.

They'd met once more after her arrival on Earth and adoption by Janet, on a day when Sam had taken her to a nearby park to play for the first time. Jack had insisted on going as well, and Daniel and Teal'c had somehow both ended up going with him.

It felt odd, sometimes, talking to Cassandra. He thought they should have a lot in common, being from off-world, orphaned by a Goa'uld and brought to Earth, but the similarities were superficial. Hanka's culture seemed fairly similar to Earth's, compared with that of Abydos, even with a similar climate and government and educational systems; they were just several decades behind in technology. It was partly age, too--Jack had laughed at him once when he'd said that, but what he'd _meant_ was that the few years between almost-twelve and almost-fifteen made a difference, whatever the culture.

Looking down at her now, it struck him that, literally for the first time in months, he was the oldest one in the room and was here in an official SGC capacity; he actually _was_ supposed to be the adult this time. "So...how have you been?" he said, awkwardly trying to make some conversation as they waited. "Have you settled in with Janet?"

She nodded, carefully putting down her paintbrush. "I like it with her."

"And with Sam, yeah?" Daniel said. Sam had confided to him later that she had seriously considered adopting Cassandra herself. The only thing stopping her had been her fears about not doing it right, or not knowing what a young girl would need. There was also the fact that she was at least as busy as Janet--when she was actually on the planet--and not ready to have a child of her own, not when she was in the thick of battles and off-world so much of the time.

As if reading his mind, Cassandra said, "I haven't seen Sam in a while."

Daniel grimaced. "Oh. Well, you know, she talks about you a lot, but she's been really--"

"--busy, I know," she finished for him, sounding like she really did understand, though it didn't mask her disappointment. "Everyone is. Are you waiting for them, too?"

"Um, yeah. There's been...yeah." He really needed to ask someone how much Cassandra knew about the SGC, beyond her own experiences. Conversations could get very awkward very fast otherwise. Faster, anyway. Quickly changing the subject, he asked instead, "What...uh, what else have you been doing?"

"I started going to a school here in America. It's almost the end of the school year for them, so I won't _really_ start until it's autumn. But my teacher says I'm a talented artist," she said, a little proud and a little shy, as she turned the picture so that it faced him.

"It's...it's nice," he said after a while. "Um...what is it?"

"It's a _rainbow_ ," she huffed.

"A...rainbow?" he asked blankly.

"From when it rains," she said, as if it should be obvious. Well, how should he have known? On Abydos, it was rare to see more than a minute of rain at a time in Nagada proper, and their rain certainly didn't look like what Cassandra was painting. Most times, Nagadans only knew of a distant rainfall when they traveled for trade, when the river in the Badari province began to rise during the fertile seasons. He himself had seen four rains in the village itself that he could remember, each of them barely lasting long enough to haul vessels outside to catch the water.

Daniel peered more closely at the picture, though, to humor her, then suddenly remembered a picture he had seen in one of Dr. Barr's books. "Oh! It's like Bifrost." When she looked blank in return, he explained, "It's a bridge connecting Midgard--Earth, I mean, to Asgard. The Æsir used it to travel back and forth between their realms." There was even a word for it in his mother tongue-- _khin'mut pati_ , the kiss from the sky--so obviously rainbows happened sometimes on Abydos.

"Shush!" Cassandra scolded, whispering, "We're not supposed to talk about traveling to other places besides Earth. And everyone knows Asgard's not real."

"W--no, well, it's just...it's a myth," he said uncomfortably. "And it's a myth _here_ , so people here know it, too. Well, not necessarily everyone _here_ , like right here in the hospital, or even everyone on...uh, in America, but _some_ people..." He trailed off as the rest of her words registered. "Did you just...Asgard? Who says that it's not real?" Did schools on Earth normally teach Norse mythology? Or...

She shrugged. "There were stories on--in Toronto," she said, which was what she'd been told to call her homeland of Hanka. "People who said they were taken by some being from Asgard."

Daniel blinked. " _Really_? But...wait, if they were taken, how did they tell the stories?"

"They don't actually get _taken_ , Daniel. It's just a story people tell." When he still gaped at her, she rolled her eyes. "A lot of them had had too much drink the night before. Everyone knows it's just an old legend--something people tell as an excuse."

"Are you sure?" he asked, his thoughts whirring and excitement growing. "Because, you know, I've been wondering why certain pla--places have people who speak Germanic languages like English when they shouldn't have had any contact at all." English had developed on Earth, after all, as far as he knew, after the Goa'uld had left. But both Hanka and Cimmeria had English-speakers, although the Asgard presence on Hanka was obviously much less. Still, it was a connection... "What else did they say? Did they describe Asgard? I mean, could we..." He trailed off.

Cassandra had turned away and was smearing a finger idly against her Bifrost now, and Daniel realized with a jolt of horror what he'd almost said. _Could we go back to your homeworld and ask your people about their legends?_

"I'm sorry." He cleared his throat. "I-it's a nice painting," he offered lamely instead, kicking himself mentally for getting carried away. She turned back and raised an eyebrow at him in a way reminded him of her adoptive mother.

So he was relieved when a knock sounded at the door, and he moved quickly to open it. "Sam!" he said, surprised but pleased to see her. "I've been hoping to talk to you ever since you left for Nasya last Thursday--how are you? And what are you doing here?"

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before her expression cleared, as if just registering who he was. "Daniel. I'm here to see Cassandra."

"Oh. Uh...sorry," he muttered, backing away, a little confused at her cool expression but berating himself for feeling that way. It had been a busy couple of days, after all, and he saw her all the time, while Cassandra had always had a special relationship with Sam even though they rarely had time to visit each other.

"Sam!" Cassandra cried happily, her own face lighting up prettily in delight.

He pulled the door open wider and frowned as Sam walked by him close enough that her shoulder brushed against his--he thought he could feel something odd, like a prickling of gooseflesh on the back of his neck...

  1. He shook himself. She just wanted to spend a few minutes with the girl; it certainly didn't mean anything was wrong. Sam was kneeling and acting as warm as usual to Cassandra, anyway. He moved to sit on the couch so they could talk in private, trying not to listen as they exchanged pleasantries.



Then Cassandra gasped.

Daniel glanced up involuntarily and saw her stumble away from Sam's hug. "Cassandra," Sam said, coming to her feet, "what is it?"

Cassandra didn't answer and instead backed away, then turned and ran past a startled Daniel to hide behind the couch where he sat. He looked up questioningly at Sam, who gritted her teeth, lifting her chin a little and beginning to walk toward them, her purposeful stride completely unlike Sam's usual gentle attitude around Cassandra.

Alarmed, Daniel stood as well, his sudden movement causing Sam to pause and turn to him...

Her eyes _glowed_.

Goa'uld.

" _Ay naturu_ ," he breathed. " _Na nay_ \--Sam, not you, too..."

He looked around the office, but there was nothing he could use as a weapon, and he wouldn't, anyway, even if he could hope to touch someone as skilled in combat as Sam, because _gods_ it was _Sam_...

They stared at each other for a second, and then he sprang past her toward the door, seeing her move at the same time. He expected to be intercepted and opened his mouth to call for help, but she hadn't been trying to reach _him_ , and he was stopped by a small squeak behind him and a distorted voice, commanding, "Stop, now!"

Slowly, he turned, and his heart dropped.

Sam had pulled Cassandra from her makeshift hiding place and now stood behind her, one arm easily holding the girl's body immobile and the other hand wrapped loosely around her neck. Cassandra's eyes were wide. "Do not call out," the Goa'uld said.

"Sam, don't," Daniel begged, his words running over each other now. "I know you can still hear me, Sam, that's _Cassandra_ you're holding--you can fight it, _please_ , you have to try to--"

"I have no wish to harm either of you," the Goa'uld said calmly, and she ( _it?_ ) released Cassandra, as if to prove it. The girl immediately scampered back behind the couch as Sam's body moved toward the door again. Torn between the instinct to put himself between the Goa'uld and Cassandra or stay between the Goa'uld and the door, Daniel found himself frozen. Sam's jaw tensed determinedly. "But if you make a sound, I will not hesitate to kill everyone in this building, starting with the girl."

A whimper came from behind the couch.

"Sam," he said again, still hoping they could get past the snake to his friend. Her eyes bored into him and flashed with unnatural light, and he knew with a sudden, boiling hatred that he wasn't talking to Sam, not now. " _Orak, Goa'uld,_ " he snarled helplessly instead, fully expecting the insult to be brushed away with a sneer or a fist but too furious to care.

Instead, Sam's face twisted in anger. "I am _not_ a Goa'uld!" it growled, as if a refusal to speak in its native tongue would prove the words. "It is they who are the abomination, not I."

"You won't win," he said.

"You won't _live_ if you try to stop me."

" _Dal shakka mel, ha'taaka!_ " he said, hoping his terror wasn't leaking through the bravado.

"Will you let little Cassie die free, as well?" it taunted. Daniel reflexively shifted toward the girl.

The Goa'uld was faster and blocked his path, the edge of a knife at his throat. Daniel froze, not daring to swallow or breathe or do anything at all but wonder whether weapons were supposed to be allowed in the hospital, except of course Sam, of all people--or the monster controlling her--could find a way to smuggle one in.

"If you dare to make a sound or stop me from leaving," it whispered, "I will kill her, you, and everyone else in my path. Samantha Carter is not suspected by her people--even without the strength of a symbiote, she could kill many before she was stopped."

Daniel licked his lips and glanced toward the couch, where he could see only a lock of Cassandra's hair from around the side. The blade pressed lightly against his skin, and he nodded very slightly. The knife disappeared at once, and he stepped back reluctantly, clearing the Goa'uld's path to the exit.

A smirk appeared on Sam's lips. "A wise choice. Tell no one I was here."

He glared at it as it walked confidently past him, burying his anguish for his friend and fear for what was happening in the warmth of anger. " _Dal, Goa'uld,_ " he hissed as it reached for the door.

A muscle in Sam's jaw twitched. "I am Tok'ra. We are not the same as the Goa'uld who are your enemy."

He narrowed his eyes, suspicious and confused. "You are _tok Ra_? You're too late. The Tau'ri destroyed Ra over a decade ago."

Sam-- _it_ smirked at him again. "The Tau'ri have grown powerful in the time since the Goa'uld reign here," it agreed. "But you still have so much to learn, Daniel."

"What...?"

The door clicked shut behind her. Daniel stared at it for a while, not quite believing it had just _left_ without even hurting them, and not quite believing he had just stood by and watched it leave. Because there was a Goa'uld out there, now, walking free, and Sam was undoubtedly going to the SGC now...

Gods, he had to tell someone. But it had said it would kill Cassandra--

 _Stupid,_ he thought. It couldn't possibly know what they were doing once it was gone. He would wait just long enough for it to leave, and then get a message to the SGC.

"Cassandra," he said, hurrying behind the couch. She squeaked again when he appeared over her head, and he stopped, hands held out, unthreatening. "Did she--did the Goa'uld hurt you?"

She rubbed her neck but shook her head. He looked more closely and couldn't see so much as a bruise--the Goa'uld had been almost gentle with her, as hard as it was to believe. His own hand rose involuntarily to his throat to feel skin that had not even been nicked.

"She felt different," Cassandra said. "That's how I knew."

"It's okay," he said meaninglessly, ignoring his curiosity at that statement for the moment. "She's gone now--you can come out." She shook her head. "Uh, okay. That's okay, too. Just...wait there for a second," he said. "I'll go find your mother, and--"

"No!" she protested, finally coming to her feet. "Don't."

He wasn't sure whether she didn't want anyone to know or just didn't want to be left alone, but she was probably right, anyway, that if the Goa'uld was still out there, they shouldn't let it know they were trying to find help. From here, they had no way to know whether or not she'd left the building. "Okay. Okay, then...let me call Jack," he decided, looking warily at the telephone on Janet's desk, thankful that Jack had made him memorize the numbers to dial in an emergency and wishing he had practiced calling people from a telephone before. It didn't look too difficult to use, though, compared to other Tau'ri devices. Surely it wasn't harder than dialing a DHD.

"She'll kill us if we tell," Cassandra said.

"No, she won't. I won't let her," he promised, as if he had a hope of stopping a Goa'uld by himself if it tried to do anything. But he knew a bluff when he heard one. "I'll just tell Jack to...to come here and, uh...he'll protect us, okay? I won't say anything over the telephone."

She bit her lip, then said, "I'll watch the door."

"No!" he said quickly, because shadows were visible through the door's cloudy glass, and maybe it was paranoid, but he really didn't want to test a Goa'uld more than he had to. "Don't. Just. Um. Lock the door, Cassandra, and then stay away." _Just in case._

The telephone _wasn't_ difficult to use, as it turned out. Unfortunately, neither Jack nor General Hammond was in his office, and trying to reach them by anything other than a direct line only led to someone on the other end who proved much more difficult to handle than the telephone. Apparently, the secrecy surrounding the program was so tight that there were layers of technicians between him and the SGC, the first of whom didn't seem to have any higher clearance than the employees on the upper levels of Cheyenne Mountain.

"What do you mean, 'which Daniel Jackson?'" he said, looking nervously over his shoulder. Cassandra was watching him from where she now sat against the back wall of the office. "No, I wouldn't be listed in your systems as an employee yet, but... Yes, I work at--I _live_ on the base most of the time. I need to speak with Colonel Jack O'Neill."

_"You're calling from within the Academy hospital--is this a medical emergency?"_

"No," he said without thinking, then silently cursed himself. "I mean, yes, kind of; it's more a--"

_"Sir, Colonel O'Neill is in a meeting with the general right now. I can give him a message if you would like."_

"Fine," he said, because that would have to be good enough, racking his brains and unable despite himself to remember which phones were secure and what exactly he was allowed to say if they weren't. "Even if you have to interrupt them. Tell him Cassandra Fraiser and...yes, _that_ Fraiser...Cassandra and Daniel Jackson have to speak to him immediately." Jack would be alerted by their two names alone, Daniel was sure. And if not... "Tell him--or any other officer on the deep-space telemetry project--that we found a snake."

" _You...found a...?_ "

"Those exact words," Daniel snapped, trying to imitate that tone of voice that commanders used to make people listen. "Daniel Jackson and Cassandra Fraiser found a snake. Please. It's urgent."

_"I'll have someone tell him."_

"Thank you." A shadow paused outside the door, and he stiffened, but he soon realized the build was completely wrong for Sam, and the person continued past.

That done, he checked the door once to make sure it was securely locked. He considered moving something in front of it as a barricade, then decided that, if he was strong enough to move it, a Goa'uld would be strong enough to push it away. Besides, the door was their only way out, too. Daniel let out a breath and slid down the wall to sit next to Cassandra. He tried to think of what Jack usually said in situations like this, then settled on, "Are you okay?"

"She felt different," Cassandra said again, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest and turning her head to look up at him.

"What do you mean?" he said.

"Like...I don't know. _Different_. Like I could tell there was something inside her. Like the way I feel near Teal'c, but stronger. Worse."

Daniel first thought was that maybe humans on Hanka were able to sense Goa'ulds, somehow. His second was that maybe something Nirrti had done had left the ability behind as a side effect, which made him realize that of _course_ it was from what Nirrti had done--Teal'c had mentioned being able to sense the naquadah in Goa'uld bodies, and Janet said Cassandra still had naquadah in her blood. In fact, _he_ had felt something odd when Sam walked near him, too, and he still had a tiny bit of naquadah in him--perhaps just not enough to have ever sensed anything from the larval Goa'uld inside Teal'c like Cassandra could.

He wondered if that was a deliberate strategy by the Goa'uld who ruled over naquadah-rich planets: if their slaves always felt subconsciously that there was something physically different or imposing about the Goa'uld's presence, it would be easier to pose as a god, or at least as someone who shouldn't be opposed.

But that was neither here nor there, so he pushed the thought aside and said, "I know what you mean. I felt it, too. But we'll tell Jack, and they'll take care of it."

Except they _had_ no way to take care of it, he knew--not even a Thor's Hammer anymore, or anything like it. Just a Goa'uld inside a friend. Skaara and Sha'uri and now Sam, _gods_.

"She'll kill us," Cassandra said.

"No, she won't. Sam is still in there, and she won't let it happen. Just wait and see," he lied. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

He wasn't sure whether or not she believed him, but she sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Okay."


	2. Duty and Deception, Part II

**_12 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

"Yeah, Carter's awake. I can't believe she didn't..." Jack started, then glanced at Daniel and stopped.

"That she didn't kill Cassandra and me yesterday?" Daniel guessed unhappily, leaning back in the chair set outside Sam's holding cell and watching Teal'c come down the hall toward them, ready to interrogate their Goa'uld prisoner. He could still remember the feel of Sam's steel against his throat, and he could only imagine what Cassandra must be remembering herself. "It said it was against Ra and not our enemy."

Jack was standing rigidly with his back braced against the wall, his expression hidden. "'Against Ra?' Over fifteen years too late for that."

Daniel shrugged. "Those were the only words it said in Goa'uld. Said it was ' _tok Ra_.'"

Teal'c stopped with his ID card halfway through the reader. "Tok'ra?" he repeated. "Those were the exact words she used?"

Teal'c said it differently, though, shifting the emphasis from the second syllable to the first, as if the entire prepositional phrase functioned as a separate noun, and Daniel realized that the Goa'uld in Sam had said it that way, too. He simply hadn't thought anything of it at the time because of the widely varying pronunciation of languages like Goa'uld. There were a whole universe and millennia of phonetic drift to account for, after all.

"Yes, those words," Daniel confirmed, curious now. "That's what it means, isn't it? Against Ra? Why, is there another meaning?"

The Jaffa stepped away from the door and faced both of them. "It is said that the Tok'ra are a faction of Goa'uld who oppose the System Lords. Their legend is forbidden to be told among Jaffa."

"Well, then how do you know about them?"

"The more a story is forbidden, Daniel Jackson, the more it will be told," Teal'c said. "I thought the Tok'ra to be no more than a legend; I have never met one."

Daniel turned toward the door to the cell, as if he could see Sam's face through it. "Well, I think...maybe now we have."

"I'm not trusting that thing," Jack said firmly.

"Do you think _I_ want to trust one of those...those _orak_?" Daniel snapped back, pushing agitatedly to his feet. "She's my friend, too, Jack. But we have to talk to it--her-- _it_ if we want any chance of getting Sam back."

Jack scowled. "We _don't_ negotiate with Goa'uld, Daniel."

Daniel stared at him for a moment. " _I'll_ talk to it, if you won't," he finally declared, walking toward the cell.

"No, you won't."

"You can't stop me, Jack," he said, though a part of him knew that wasn't true at all.

"The _door_ will stop you," Jack said irritably. "Your ID doesn't give you access to holding cells."

Daniel stopped. " _Yi shay_! You can't just leave her--"

Jack straightened angrily. "Don't talk to me about leaving anyone anywhere--"

"It's _Sam_ , Jack!"

"I know it's Sam! No one on _my team--_ "

"Then we have to do something!"

"I will speak with the Goa'uld," Teal'c said loudly, easily overriding both of them. There was an angry glint in his eye when he looked toward the cell door, but Daniel had to admit he still looked a lot more composed than either he or Jack was. "I will determine whether she speaks the truth."

Jack glared at the cell. "Fine. I'll go with you to question her."

"It," Daniel muttered obstinately.

"A symbiote assumes the gender of its host," Teal'c told him. Daniel's stomach twisted at the thought of a Goa'uld taking anything at all from Sam, even if it was just a pronoun. Those pronouns were called 'personal,' after all.

"Oy," Jack said, still scowling, though his voice was calmer now. "By the way, we've figured out how a Goa'uld got into her. The last host it was in? He's dead, Daniel, and so are a hell of a lot of Nasyans. So I'm having a hard time trusting this thing."

Despair threatened to rise up again, so he pushed it down with, "Do you know who it was? The previous host?"

"One of the refugees ID'd him, yeah."

"No one I talked to mentioned anything about someone who was acting differently."

"Well, the one person who'd know best is his wife. She was taken to the hospital early on, so you didn't get her statement."

Daniel looked up sharply. "Not _yet_ ," he said.

"What part about 'Goa'uld' aren't you getting, Daniel?" Jack said. "This isn't a safe zone anymore, and it's not--"

"What? It's not an emergency? It's not _more_ dangerous for everyone if we don't fix this?" he said heatedly. "I have explicit permission to work in these situations."

Jack scowled. "You have permission _if_ and when someone gives it to you."

"She's the wife of a victim, Jack, not the enemy," Daniel pointed out. " _Someone_ has to talk to her, and you know it will be either me or Teal'c. And the sooner the better. Teal'c can talk to the wife, or he can interrogate Sa--the... _her_. Which do you think is the safer option for me?"

Eventually, Jack exhaled sharply and nodded once. "Catch a ride with Fraiser when she goes over there today," he said, dropping the tone he normally used to argue with Daniel and making it clear that this was an order from an officer, "and no questioning anyone without her or an SF present. Understood?"

Caught off-guard by the acquiescence (though he shouldn't have been; Jack erred on the side of being overprotective of Daniel, but the logic was sound and this was _Sam_ ), Daniel nodded. "Understood."

"Call me as soon as you're done," he ordered, and followed Teal'c into Sam's cell.

XXXXX

**_12 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1500 hrs_ **

_"No, I haven't talked to her since this morning,"_ Daniel's voice said over the phone from Dr. Fraiser's office at the hospital. _"Talia noticed the entry scar, but she said it was four moon cycles ago when she first saw it."_

Jack paced in the hallway outside Carter's cell. "And a 'moon cycle' is..."

_"Uh, I don't know how long Nasyan months are, but it sounded like a long time. I mean, she made it sound like it was a pretty long time since she saw it."_

"And she never noticed her husband was a Goa'uld for...months," Jack said skeptically.

_"No."_

"Oh, come on!"

_"I'm just telling you what she said!"_ Daniel insisted. _"And I really don't think she was hiding anything; she looked confused more than anything. I can talk to her again later, but there's a doctor with her now. Jack, maybe the Goa'uld inside Sam is telling the truth. Did she tell you and Teal'c anything?"_

"Said she's Tok'ra, we have to let her go, we Tau'ri don't know what we're doing, she has information that can help us but doesn't want to tell us what it is, yadda," Jack said. "Says her name is Jolinar. We did convince her to tell us that there's an ash...something after her." Supposedly--unless that was just some yarn she was spinning.

_"An...a what?"_ Daniel asked.

"A Goa'uld assassin, apparently. That's why she was on Nasya to begin with: she was hiding." Or so she said.

_"Then--"_ There was a pause. _"That's why the planet was destroyed? Because she needed a place to hide?"_

Jack sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know, Daniel. Look, don't bother trying to get more info--there's probably nothing more to dig out. You might as well come back to base."

_"Janet said she'll drive me back when she's done here--"_

"That might not be for a while yet. She's staying until the last group of refugees leaves today."

" _Well, I just helped them bring some of the first group to the transport trucks,"_ Daniel said, which Jack had certainly not told him to do, but Daniel tended to interpret his orders broadly. At least he was sure to have been supervised for this. _"They've already left the hospital and should be on their way to the SGC. The next group isn't leaving for a couple of hours._ "

"Join one of the trucks with the next group, then."

But Daniel couldn't just say 'okay' and leave it there, of course, because he was Daniel. _"And did...did the Tok'ra say anything about Sam?"_

Oh, had she ever--but there was no point in raising hopes that might come crashing down later. "We're still trying to figure out whether we should trust what she says," Jack hedged. He waited a few moments, expecting an exasperated sigh and insistence for _the whole truth, Jack, come on_ , but nothing came. "Daniel?" No one answered. He stopped pacing. "Are you still there, kid? Daniel!"

Over the line, he could suddenly hear a woman's voice in the background saying, _"...need to call the SGC..."_

And then Daniel's voice, _"Here, it's already...it's Jack."_

"What the hell's going on over there?" Jack said, but then the phone was apparently handed off to someone else.

_"Colonel O'Neill, this is Dr. Fraiser. We've got a problem. One of the wounded Nasyans was actually a Goa'uld."_

Bad day.

"Doctor, we think...I guess we _know_ now that there's an elite Goa'uld assassin coming after the symbiote inside Carter," he told her, moving toward the briefing room and the general's office. "Where's the patient now? You have him under guard?"

_"No, sir. He's male, but we don't know what he looks like..."_

"What?"

_"He was burned so badly that his face was completely covered in bandages. By the time we discovered what was happening, he had been impersonating a doctor, probably for a few hours."_

No one would have questioned what someone dressed like a doctor was doing walking around a hospital, especially if he was being subtle about it. "Then he could be anyone, and he's probably already healed."

_"Yes, sir. He could have changed by now, too."_

"Dammit." He knocked on Hammond's closed office door. "Doc, tell Daniel to get to the transport trucks and over here now," he said, knowing Daniel was probably still standing there and listening to what he could hear of the conversation. The general's voice answered his knock, and he opened the door. "And Cassie, too, if it'll be safer here. We'll start putting a team together to send over your way."

General Hammond looked up at the words 'safer here' and 'putting a team together.'

Jack put a hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. "Sir, it's Dr. Fraiser. The Goa'uld assassin is in a Nasyan man at the hospital," he told the general. "They don't know who or where he is."

Over the line, Fraiser's muffled voice was saying, _"Hurry, join one of the transports outside and tell them to take you back to base right away. No, Cass--Cass, stay with Daniel; don't get separated."_

Hammond stood. "I'll get a team together. Take care of the refugees' relocation, Colonel; the first group just arrived on base. And see if you can't get any more information from Dr. Fraiser."

"Yes, sir." Into the phone, he asked, "Dr. Fraiser, you still there?"

_"Yes, sir."_

"Who knows about this? How d'you find out?"

_"I found the attending physician unconscious in the patient's bed, covered in bandages so no one would know they had switched places. You're the first person I've told, but soon someone will notice that Dr. Jacobs was admitted by me with no explanation."_

"No other suspicious activities there?" He made his way down the corridor to the SG-1 ready room. Jack waved at Teal'c to catch his attention, then covered the mouthpiece and said, "The Nasyans are arriving. Go to the 'gate room and make sure they all get sent through." The Jaffa nodded and left without question.

_"Not that I know of, Colonel,"_ Fraiser was saying, sounding frustrated, _"but we have no idea just what he's doing."_

"He can't know that the Tok'ra is here at the SGC," Jack said, thinking furiously. "You think he knows it was in one of the Nasyans and he's trying to figure out which one?"

_"Possibly,"_ she said. _"He might have some way to figure out which patient's body is hosting a symbiote. And even without any special technology, we know from Teal'c and Cassandra that one symbiote can sense the presence of another."_

"I forgot about that. Great." A thought struck him. "I just sent Teal'c to the Stargate, but someone else can handle relocation. I'll send him to you. Maybe he can sense it if someone's walking around with a snake--"

A crashing sound came over the line, distinctly like that of a door bursting violently open.

"Doc?" Jack barked into the phone. "Talk to me. Dr. Fraiser!"

_"Guys, we don't have time for..."_ he heard her start to say, and then there were two other voices, one high-pitched and one lower, talking rapidly over each other. Then one dropped off, and Jack recognized Daniel's voice before he stopped, too. A silence followed.

"What the hell--"

_"I need to get back to base, Colonel,"_ Fraiser interrupted him. _"The kids found an airman dead in one of the transport trucks, stripped of his fatigues and his tags. The Goa'uld assassin may be impersonating him in the first group of refugees."_

"Ah, geez." He turned back, heading for the 'gate room. "The first group's just arrived. They've already passed the security checkpoint."

_"What?"_ she said, sounding as close to panicked as he had ever heard her. _"Then the assassin is probably already at the SGC, sir."_

_"Mom?"_ Cassie's scared voice asked. _"What's going on?"_

_"It's...complicated,"_ Jack heard Fraiser say. _"Cass, stay here, okay? Don't argue, Daniel! Lock the door and look after Cassandra, don't let anyone in without my word. Colonel O'Neill, I'm on my way back now."_

"Good. Check in when you're here." He shut off the phone. "Teal'c!" he called as he arrived through the blast doors, ignoring the curious stares of Nasyans and thankful for once that they wouldn't understand what he was saying. "The assassin is on base, possibly dressed like one of our men. He'll probably try to get out through the Stargate, so get your zat ready--stun anyone who looks suspicious and we'll sort it out later."

The Jaffa placed a hand over the zat gun at his side. "He is looking for Jolinar of Malkshur, O'Neill."

"Y'think?" Jack was already on his way out, heading for the armory and wishing he had his own zat or sidearm on him. "Stay here--I'm going to look for him!"

XXXXX

**_13 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 2100 hrs_ **

By the time it ended, Jack didn't know how many of their security force had been killed, collateral damage for a Goa'uld assassin looking for its target. He _really_ didn't know how he was supposed to feel about the fact that Jolinar had been killed, too.

Or sacrificed herself. Or something. Jack decided not to think about that. Better to think about Carter.

"Sam--ah, Carter," Jack said, his hands in his pockets as he walked toward the woman on the hospital bed. He could tell she was awake again--her open eyes kind of gave that away--but she didn't answer.

_She's alive_ , he thought firmly. As far as first steps went, that seemed pretty good. It was further than Charlie Kawalsky had gotten. She'd talked the night before, a little--just to say that the Tok'ra had saved her life, sure, but that she'd said anything at all meant she wasn't permanently brain-damaged or something. He was pretty sure.

"I just called Cassie and Daniel at the hospital. They're fine. On their way back here to see you," he tried. When she still didn't react, he bent and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. "Doc says you're gonna be okay. Glad... You know. Glad you're...back. Captain." Mostly back, anyway. He straightened, suppressing a frustrated sigh, and walked back out into the hallway.

"Jack?"

He looked up to see Daniel standing there, Cassie partially hiding behind him with a hand wrapped around his arm.

"You two okay?" Jack asked.

"We're okay," Daniel answered, one finger tapping nervously on his leg, glancing once at Cassie. "But no one would tell us anything on the way from the hospital. What happened? Is...is Sam...?"

Jack looked at Cassie to include her in his answer. "Dr. Fraiser's just doing some last checks, but Sam's almost completely healed."

Daniel's eyebrows rose at the word 'healed,' making Jack realize that they really didn't know _anything_ about what had just happened.

"Is the Goa'uld gone?" Cassie asked, cutting to the part that mattered most.

"Yes, sweetie," Fraiser said, stepping out. "The symbiote that was inside Sam died, but it saved her life at the same time."

"So she's fine," Cassie said.

Fraiser exchanged a look with Jack. "She's uninjured, nothing a few days of rest won't cure. She's the same old Samantha Carter that she was before."

Daniel looked between them with a frown, no doubt noticing the evasiveness of the answer. Cassie must have noticed, too, or seen her mom's hesitation, because she asked in frustration, "Then what's wrong?"

"Well," Jack said, lowering himself to a crouch to bring himself closer to eye level with her, though this meant that Daniel was disconcertingly looking down at him. "She's just a little sad right now. Do you want to visit her? I'll bet she cheers up when she sees you."

She nodded, and Jack stood, taking her hand to lead her toward the door. Daniel hovered anxiously behind both of them, as if unsure whether to go in or stay outside; Jack caught his eye and gestured slightly with his head to remain outside. Daniel looked reluctant but stayed obediently in the hallway with them, watching from the doorway as Cassandra walked in and tugged on Sam's shoulder until the woman turned and lay flat on her back to look back up at the girl.

"You're going to be okay," they heard from where they stood outside the room. Sam turned away slightly. Cassie moved back into her line of sight and plopped down next to her on the bed, curling up and staring until Sam reached out and pulled her close.

Fraiser smiled a little and gave Jack a relieved nod that Sam was at least acknowledging Cassie's presence the way she hadn't been responding to anyone else since the Goa'uld--Tok'ra, Jolinar, whatever--had died yesterday. He took one more long look at where Sam--Captain Carter--lay on the bed, then backed out of the infirmary. Daniel was still staring at them with an odd look on his face, so Jack put a hand on his shoulder to catch his attention.

"Let's give them some time," he said quietly, jerking his head back out at the hall. "Look, sorry we left you two at the hospital, but we had to be sure it was safe here, first."

Daniel was slow in drawing his eyes away from the doorway to the infirmary but said, "It's okay. There was someone guarding the door the whole time, and they brought a cot into Janet's office for the night and everything. You could have told us what was happening, though," he added, his tone reproving, though the relief was still strong enough to overpower it for the most part.

"We had to be sure, first," Jack repeated. It would've been worse if they'd thought Sam was back, and then something had gone wrong. "But I can tell you now if you still want to know."

"Of course I want to know," Daniel said, because he always wanted to know. "All we knew was that there was an assassin trying to kill the Goa--the Tok'ra, and he got here with the Nasyans, but--"

"Teal'c stopped him," Jack said. "He was helping to get the refugees through the Stargate, so he sensed the guy's snake when he tried to escape. Zatted him." Well, and zatted one of the refugees, too, a woman the assassin had taken hostage, but zats were handy that way--first shot didn't kill.

"But something happened to Sam," Daniel pressed. "You said she was 'healed.' And the Tok'ra _died_ , so something must have..."

"We...didn't exactly see that part. The assassin got to her before we could, but she's okay now." Jack looked at his watch, then said, reluctantly, "You, ah...you want to go home tonight?"

Daniel glanced again at the infirmary door. "Not really," he said.

"Good," Jack said, relieved. "Me neither."

XXXXX

**_14 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

Fraiser met Jack as he tried to enter the infirmary in the morning. "When did Cassie end up leaving?" he asked her.

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Leaving? I don't know what you mean, Colonel." She gestured toward the door.

Jack peeked in and immediately wondered which of the three people on the narrow hospital bed would fall off first. He decided it would probably be Daniel, since Cassie didn't take up too much space, and Carter was pretty safe in the middle of the bed.

Carter was lying on her side with her cheek resting in Cassie's hair, while the girl curled up under her chin like a life-sized teddy bear. Sam's other hand was entwined with Daniel's; he was asleep on his back, his head next to her pillow and one leg dangling awkwardly over the side, as if he'd been sitting on the edge of the bed and simply conked out on the spot.

"One of them's gonna end up on the floor," he said aloud, though he didn't move to try to separate them. "Cassie's been here since last night? When'd Daniel come in?" Jack had checked in on the captain occasionally until early this morning, when she seemed to have fallen asleep.

"He's been wandering past here every once in a while for most of the night. Not unlike you and Teal'c," Fraiser pointed out. "Sam woke up about an hour ago, saw him standing at the door, and wanted to talk to him, so..." She held out a hand toward the three people. "I didn't want to disturb her--she seems comfortable with them there."

Jack eyed Daniel's sprawled and twisted form, thinking _he_ might not be particularly comfortable when he woke up, but only said, "Okay."

"Do you want to put that down, sir?" Fraiser added.

With a start, Jack remembered that he was holding a laptop in his hands. "Ah...I...don't want to wake her. I can come back later. I just figured...she'll be staying here for a few days, right?"

"I'd like her to, yes. But unless you want to carry that around the base for the next few hours, Colonel, I'd leave it, or you can just wait here for her to wake up," Fraiser suggested. "And I should take Cassie home once they wake up, too. Physically, Sam's almost completely fine, presumably from the symbiote that gave its life for her."

He exhaled heavily. "It's just getting...sucked into her? That can't be normal."

"Absorbed," she corrected, then conceded, "Normal? Not by _our_ standards. But it doesn't seem to be leaving anything behind, other than some residual naquadah. I've identified a few marker proteins in her plasma that don't seem to have any adverse effect, but we'll do a comprehensive genetic screen, too. It's a little like the way Cassandra still has naquadah in her bloodstream. Of course, I can't really say, but it seems unlikely that it'll harm her. Physically."

"And other than physically?"

Fraiser hesitated. "She seems to have relaxed a bit with the kids there," she said in answer.

"Yeah." Jack looked over the doctor's head again at his second-in-command. "I'll just leave this in there for her," he said.

Carter stirred when he approached the bed, but she didn't wake. Daniel's eyes blinked open, though, and he shifted slightly, then froze when he realized where he was. His still-groggy gaze flicked to Jack, who put a finger to his lips and carefully set the laptop on the bedside table, then leaned over both of them to check on Cassie. She still slept on contentedly.

He wavered for a moment between letting Daniel stay there--it had been a long few days for everyone, after all--and motioning him to get up. Cassie was still small, but Daniel's latest growth spurt made him almost as tall as Sam now. In fact, at the moment, he looked more imposing than she did, fully dressed in his usual military BDUs next to her in a hospital gown, and if Jack hadn't known who they were, he would have been the first to drag Daniel away from her bed.

The decision was made for him, however, when Daniel squirmed uncomfortably, winced, and carefully shifted his booted feet on the floor, painstakingly extracting his arm from Sam's grasp. Once he was free, he backed quietly away from the bed, watching warily to make sure he hadn't disturbed her, then looked at Jack, as if for instruction.

Jack took a last look at Carter, almost wishing she would wake up and show him this wasn't the same near-catatonia he had seen after Jolinar's death, but she was actually sleeping, this time, not staring at a wall. That was a good sign, right? Right.

Without a word, he hooked an arm around Daniel's shoulders and drew him out into the hallway, yawning.

"Sorry," Daniel said, embarrassed, as soon as they were out of hearing range, ducking away to stand with his back against the wall. "I didn't mean to fall asleep there, but we were talking, and Sam had my arm, and then Cassie fell asleep, and Sam didn't let go, and..." He flapped a hand vaguely, hunching self-consciously in the way of someone who was growing faster than his coordination could keep up.

But Sam had been talking more--that was a good thing.

"Just don't make a habit of it, or people'll talk," Jack quipped, prompting a momentary blank look that quickly turned into a flush when the meaning sank in. "Long day," he said with a sense of déjà vu.

"Zz," Daniel said. Jack gave him a look, wondering which one of them was more tired than he'd thought. " _Days_ , plural," Daniel clarified. "You said that three...four days ago, too."

"Guess I did," he said, remembering the nightmare of wounded refugees piling up in their understaffed and uncomprehending facility, with only a few people who could tell them anything more than 'friend' and 'safe.' "Hey, look, the whole thing...that wasn't an easy situation," he said. "Any of it. High pressure and all...you did okay. Better than okay."

"Everything just started happening all at once, when the Nasyans first came through," Daniel said. "I guess I stopped thinking. And afterward, there was Cassandra, and we were both...unsettled."

Unsettled, hell. Cassie's first experience with a Goa'uld had been the complete genocide of her people and nearly her own death; Daniel's experiences with them had included the murder of his parents and his own actual (though temporary) death at the hands of someone wearing his brother's face. With Sam as a host, the two of them must have been scared shitless, and Jack was grateful they'd kept their heads, literally and metaphorically.

"Well, you didn't panic," Jack told him. "That's something no one can teach."

There was no pretending anymore that anyone could keep Daniel away from this, unless Kasuf refused to give him permission when he went back to Abydos. He'd made himself valuable here, as the refugee situation had shown, and he worked with the sort of intensity that made it clear he was either born for this sort of work or had become too obsessed with it to back away. It was probably both. The only thing Jack could do now was to make sure he was trained right and didn't get himself killed. (Again.)

"But there's a difference between being able to think straight and completely turning everything off," Jack added. "A little fear can be a good thing. You get careless otherwise." Like deciding to stroll in to interrogate a Goa'uld prisoner.

Daniel smiled a little and joked, "I'm not usually _that_ reckless. Unless someone puts me in a sarcophagus, anyway."

Too soon. Jack twitched a little. "Don't joke about that."

The smile died, and Daniel ducked his head. "Sorry. _Ay_ ," he said suddenly. "Gods--I can't believe I didn't even ask--the Nasyans...?"

"All sent to a safe planet. All two-hundred and thirty-seven of them."

"Oh. I was hoping to talk to Talia again before they left."

"Talk to...who?"

"Quinta's wife," Daniel explained, which meant approximately nothing to Jack. "Quinta was the...well, Jolinar's previous host, the man who died on Nasya. I..." He grimaced. "I felt bad for Talia. I promised her we would help her find her husband."

"Well...we did, sort of."

"That's not funny."

"I wasn't trying to be. At least she's not left wondering now," Jack said. That might have been kinder, though, in some ways.

"I suppose you're right," Daniel conceded uncertainly. "Jack, when you said two-hundred and thirty-seven Nasyans saved, was that counting the _ashrak_?"

"Thirty-six, then," Jack admitted, then noticed the new Goa'uld vocabulary. "You've talked to Teal'c since last night?"

"Yes," Daniel said. "I can sense his symbiote, did you know that?"

Jack blinked at the non sequitur. "Ah...no. I didn't. Did you?"

Daniel shook his head. "It must be the residual naquadah in my blood. I never did before, but I kind of did with Jolinar, and Cassandra can feel Teal'c's symbiote, so I wanted to see if I could, too. It's weaker with his larval Goa'uld, since Teal'c says it doesn't actually release naquadah into the rest of his body like mature symbiotes do into a host, so I can't feel it unless I have my hand literally on his _prim'ta_ pouch, but it's there. And with Sam, too, even now, if I'm close enough and thinking about it. It's fascinating."

"It's...fascinating, you say," Jack echoed.

"Well, I probably would never know it unless I was looking for it," he admitted. "It's not nearly as strong a feeling for me as it is for Cassandra. And probably for Sam now. But it could be useful, right?" A flicker of curiosity passed through his eyes. "I wonder if I could sense things like the Stargate if I were thinking about it. I'll bet Sam could, even if I can't--"

"You're not going to ask her," Jack told him sharply.

Daniel looked surprised for an instant, then chagrined. "No, of course not," he said, more quietly. "I won't. But I could ask Teal'c," he decided, looking toward Teal'c's quarters. "His symbiote reacts to naquadah more than I do."

Jack couldn't stop his lips from twisting at the comparison of Daniel to a symbiote, not to mention the thought of purposely wanting to feel Junior squirm against his hand for any reason. The things Daniel found _fascinating_ would never cease to amaze him. "This is what you were doing? Playing with Teal'c's larval Goa'uld?"

Daniel made a face. "No. He just let me test. Mostly, we were playing _asebe_."

"Playing what?"

"Um, Robert calls it 'twenty-squares.'" When Jack still looked blank, he explained, "It's a game played on Abydos, like a...a simulation of a battle. I drew a board, and we play together sometimes, while we talk."

What with this new group of rebel snakes and everything that had happened with the assassin, Jack could guess what they had been talking about, so he didn't ask for elaboration. "Board games, huh. You know how to play chess?" Daniel shook his head. "Remind me to teach you sometime. And Teal'c."

"Okay," he said distractedly. "You know, I should go to the office and see if Robert wants me to do anything. I have some things that I never finished."

"For cryin' out loud, Daniel, it's Sunday morning," Jack said tiredly.

"The SGC doesn't stop on Sundays, Jack."

He rolled his eyes. "No, but a lot of us are on stand-down, and when there's nothing going on, most of the civilians don't spend their lives here. Present company excluded. I mean, is Rothman even coming in today?"

"Um. I don't think so," Daniel admitted after a moment. "I just...want to do something."

"I just want to do _nothing_ for a while," Jack said. "And I don't want to catch _you_ working on SGC business until tomorrow, either." He waited for a protest, but none came.

Daniel had a pensive look on his face. "Sam's going to be okay." It wasn't a question, this time, but a fact. "She said she felt guilty about--well, a lot of things, but especially almost hurting us when Cassandra and I were at the Academy hospital. I think it made her feel better when she found out we weren't afraid of her or anything."

"Because it wasn't her fault."

"Well, _we_ know that. And Sam does, too, I know she does, but..." Daniel shrugged, then continued with an edge of excitement in his voice. "And you know what else, Jack?"

"Yeah, I do," Jack answered, which made Daniel give him a surprised look. "Now we know for sure that hosts aren't gone when they're Goa'ulded." It wasn't hard to guess the Abydon was thinking of Skaara and his sister.

"Goa'uld...ed? We're, uh...verbifying nouns now?" Daniel repeated, a hint of a smile appearing at his lips. Jack shrugged. "But that's not all I was going to say," he continued, more seriously. "Now we know the Goa'uld are more complicated than we thought. As a society, I mean. They can be swayed by different points of view and...and moralities, or there wouldn't be a rebel faction like these Tok'ra."

"Right, well, I don't know that I want to call these rebel Goa'uld the good guys," Jack said. "We have no idea what their agenda is, and I've got a little problem or two with the way they work."

"Yes, but it still means we have to change our assumptions. According to Jaffa legends, the Tok'ra have done a lot to hurt the Systems Lords."

"And they can keep doing it as long as they leave us alone," Jack grumbled.

"I know what you mean," Daniel conceded. "Sam was Goa'ulded against her will, and it was because of them that almost all of Nasya was--" He drew in a sharp breath--he still hadn't quite wrapped his head around the idea of losing most of a _planet_ because of one rebel's misstep--but went on. "But it's not that simple. Jolinar could have hurt Cassandra and me, or even killed us. Easily. And she didn't, even when she was desperate. And in the end...well, Sam's alive, so..."

"So they're less bad than the Goa'uld. That's all I'm gonna give them." No one who burrowed into his teammate's head without permission would be rating anything better than a 'less bad' in Jack's book. Discussion over. "Hey, Fraiser said you've been wandering the halls all night, kid. Crisis over--you want to go catch some sleep in your quarters?"

Daniel shrugged indifferently. "It takes a surprisingly long time to stop being used to thirty-six hour days. I'm okay."

"That's not an answer, and it wasn't actually meant as a question, Daniel." When he saw the hesitation, he added, "Don't worry. I'll be checking in on Carter."

"And Cassie, too."

"Yeah, Cassie, too," Jack confirmed. "Go to bed. I'll make it an order if you want."

Daniel made a face that said very clearly what he thought of that order and pushed away from the wall, moving toward the elevator. "I'll come back later to visit, then."

"Bring your homework," Jack added. Daniel stopped and looked at him like he was nuts. "What?"

Daniel rolled his eyes but smiled a little and admitted, "Sam left me some problems I never got to finish."

"Well, there you go."

After Daniel had disappeared toward his room, Jack turned back to the infirmary, checking that Fraiser was still in her back office. When he turned to Carter's bed this time, she was awake and gently combing her fingers through Cassandra's hair. Her eyes flicked to him as he approached, and then to the laptop at her bedside.

Cassie chose that moment to wake up, as well, and she sat up to look down at Carter. "Morning, Cassandra," Sam said to her, clearing her throat and adding to Jack, "Uh, sir."

"How're you doing?" Jack replied.

"Good," she said, spots of red appearing on her cheeks. "I'm...I'm feeling better, sir." She looked at a point behind him. Jack looked over his shoulder to where Fraiser was watching them from her office. "Cassandra," Carter said, "um, you should probably be heading home, too. Thanks for coming to see me."

"Okay, Sam," Cassie said agreeably, starting to slide off her bed and down to the floor. "You'll visit?"

"Real soon," Carter told her. "Even if it gets busy. I'll make sure, this time, promise."

Fraiser's heels clicked as she walked toward them as well, her lab coat draped over one arm. "Cass?" Cassie bent down for one more hug, then went to her mother. "Sam, Dr. Warner will be here in a few minutes if you need anything, and I'll be back later, too. You need to take it easy for the next few days, but you'll be just fine."

"Thanks, Janet," she said, looking unsure where to direct her gaze. Fraiser hesitated, then nodded to the two of them and led her daughter out.

"So," Jack said when they were gone.

Carter stared at him for a minute. "Is...I mean, Jolinar's...dead. I didn't imagine that, sir?"

"No. Your MRI was clean," Jack said, not missing the brief flash of grief across her face before she regained control of her expression. What was there about a Goa'uld to sympathize with, exactly? But, since the snake's death meant _something_ to her, for whatever reason, he added, "The doctor tried to save the Goa'uld. There was nothing we could do."

"He...I think Jolinar was just trying to help his people. He was just desperate, that's all."

Jack bit back the _'snakes, not people,'_ that tried to emerge. Instead, he corrected, "She. Ask Teal'c," he added when she looked startled. "I don't really know how that works."

She nodded and sat up a little self-consciously, then looked around the room. "Where's...um, Daniel came in here earlier. Did he...?"

"Sent him off to bed," Jack told her, sliding his hands into his pockets.

She reddened again slightly. "Sir, I apologize for--"

"Listen, thanks for watching over Cassie and Daniel," he interrupted her, prompting a startled look.

"I wasn't--"

"They were pretty scared, whether or not they wanted to admit it. Not of you, Captain," he said when she looked down again. "Just by the whole...assassin trying to infiltrate the base and...Nasya...thing. So. I'm glad you looked after them."

"I understand what you're doing, Colonel, and I appreciate it, but..." She lifted her chin. "What's the Nasyan situation, sir?"

"All taken care of," he assured her. "Relocated to a safe planet."

"Was there something you needed, then?" She nodded toward the laptop and started to reach for it. "I can pull up whatever you--"

Jack snatched it away. "Ah! No one needs anything right now, Carter. This is just in case you're bored before Fraiser springs you."

She eyed the computer. "That's thoughtful of you, sir. Um, I don't suppose you brought the AC adaptor, too?" She glanced at the outlet next to the bed.

"Nope. It's got batteries."

"Sir, the batteries won't last for--"

"Good thing you're off-duty for the next few days, then, huh?"

Carter scowled at him, and he had to work at keeping his triumph off his face. "If you say so, sir."

"I do." He fell silent, then, not sure what else to say. Finally, when the silence stretched a little too long, he settled on, "You're gonna be fine, Captain."

This time, though Carter looked away and clenched a fist in the sheet, she nodded determinedly. "Yes, sir. That's what they tell me."


	3. Civilians

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long stretches of non-English dialogue are in italics.

**_29 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1200 hrs_ **

"Hey, boy wonder," Major Ferretti called when Daniel walked past him with a tray in the commissary.

Daniel looked around, but there was no one else the major could be beckoning. "Me?"

"Yeah, you, Jackson."

He backed up a couple of steps to face Ferretti. "Uh. Hello."

"Pull up a chair," Ferretti said.

Daniel glanced at the rest of SG-2 sitting at the table. "Are you sure--"

"We need to go over a couple of things before the mission tomorrow," Ferretti interrupted, gesturing with his fork. "Siddown." At a look from the major, Captain Casey moved his seat a little to make room between himself and Captain Griff. A little apprehensive, Daniel set his tray down in the space and dragged an unused chair to the table.

SG-2 had a reputation in the research departments for being one of the friendlier ones to civilians. As the other main first-contact team, they didn't have any scientists on the permanent roster but worked with scientists and translators more often than the purely military teams did; Robert had joined them a few times over the last year. Moreover, Ferretti was one of the few officers who greeted Daniel or dropped a few amiable words when they passed each other in the halls, which he thought was a good sign.

Daniel hadn't yet lost his wariness of hardened military people he didn't know, however, and he wasn't sure what Griff, Casey, or Warren thought of his joining them off-world. Griff, in particular, was new to the program as well as to SG-2 and had sent him a few curious, not quite hostile looks during the pre-mission briefing. "What do you want to go over, Major?"

"Mainly, I need to know that you understand how the chain of command works," Ferretti said. "How many times have you gone off-world? On a mission the general approved, I mean."

"Just twice to dig sites and once to Argos to help them turn off the nanocytes."

That last one had been a suggestion from the alternate reality, a purely altruistic mission to help the local people. Actually, Daniel had just been observing, but it had been considered a safe enough planet for him and Robert to gain experience and to help with cultural data gathering while the engineering team disabled the transmitter responsible for the nanites' function. Besides, while Robert had been more interested in the records of past humans, Daniel had had the chance to practice Ancient Greek dialects by talking to the people living there.

"Those missions were with Dr. Rothman," Ferretti clarified.

"Yes." He tried not to fidget as the other men watched him answer. "It's just a better use of manpower, splitting us up this time," he said, repeating the words Robert had used to explain to the general. "We know they speak an Egyptian dialect, which I'm at least as likely to decipher as he is."

Robert had left this morning with SG-1, in fact, to some planet where people seemed friendly and very likely spoke a Mayan language, judging by MALP video data, so he had suggested that Daniel take SG-2's mission without him.

"Nah, I'm not complaining," Ferretti told him. "Frankly, it'll make it easier for us if we don't have to watch both of you at once. That's what I need to talk to you about. While we're off-world this time, you're not gonna have Rothman to be responsible for you--you answer to me, or my team, and no one else."

"Of course," Daniel answered quickly.

Major Warren spoke up then. "And that means you don't waste time questioning orders if we enter into a hostile situation. Any weapons come out, you look for cover and stay there until Major Ferretti or one of us tells you to move, understand?"

Daniel felt his eyebrows rise in surprise. "Weapons? I thought this was just a follow-up mission to collect samples from P3X-595. That's what the general said at the briefing."

"It is," Ferretti agreed, "but you never know; that's the whole point. So when we step through that 'gate, your job is to translate. If anything happens, we protect you, which means you don't do anything that'll make our job harder. Is that clear?"

"Uh..." Alarm started to creep up as he mentally reviewed the reports of the first mission to P3X-595, wondering if he had somehow missed some mention of possible hostilities. Casey, Warren, and Ferretti were all watching him as if to see how he would react, the united front more intimidating than he had expected, having observed SG-2 from a distance before. Griff gave him a sideways glance but stayed silent as well. Daniel sat up straight and said, "Yes. Uh, sir. It's clear."

He was rarely in a situation where he called anyone but General Hammond 'sir,' but Daniel stood out here already, more than any other civilian. Being not-quite a full employee yet meant he had to step more carefully than people with PhDs or ranks did, and at the moment, it meant showing SG-2 that he would follow their lead in the field. He could do that.

Ferretti suddenly grinned. "Good. Hey, lighten up, all right? I'm not saying I expect trouble. It's just in case." Around him, Griff seemed to relax as well while Casey and Warren casually went back to their lunches.

Daniel looked at them uncertainly. "Okay."

"And don't drink anything they give you," Ferretti added. Warren snorted into his meal, while Casey shot the man a dirty look.

"Why?" Daniel asked.

"Well, the stuff they handed out the last time we were there... Let's just say you're definitely underage, Jackson."

Completely lost--what was that supposed to mean? Underage for what?--Daniel looked from Casey's flaming red ears to Warren's barely suppressed snickers and Ferretti's smirk.

"Ow, Christ," Warren yelped suddenly. "Did you just kick me, _Captain_?"

Griff looked up, bewildered. "No, sir, I don't--"

"Not you. Casey."

"Sorry, sir," Casey said innocently. "My foot slipped."

Daniel might still be learning, but he was fairly sure that wasn't the way the chain of command was supposed to work.

But then, some SG teams seemed to follow their own version of a chain of command. SG-11, who had gone to Argos, acted as a group of researchers, with Captain Conner usually the only one anywhere near a weapon to guard them. Though all of them were military-trained and they called Conner 'Captain,' the rest of them tended to forgo formalities with each other, ignoring rank and alternating between first and last names and even nicknames that would have been considered disrespectful in other units.

And Daniel had seen SG-1 work, of course, in their own odd way. With fewer members than any other team, one a Jaffa warrior who often acted as translator and one a physicist who often had to act as an emergency engineer instead of a combat-ready officer, Jack had to allow them independence in their area of specialty. While Sam was the second-in-command, that duty seemed to pass easily between her and Teal'c when necessary, if the other was otherwise occupied. The line between them and Jack was clear, though, only blurring when they were off-duty. Daniel was certain Sam wouldn't kick Jack under the table, for instance, not on base. Probably not even off-base.

Then again, he had seen Jack and Major Kawalsky bantering easily for the short time they'd been on Abydos. Maybe Warren and Casey had been friends for a long time. Friends or not, however, SG-2 deferred instantly to Ferretti--in the field and off--perhaps even more than Sam or Teal'c did to Jack, even though Ferretti could often be seen joking among them like an equal.

SG team dynamics were very confusing.

Captain Griff looked just as wary of his new teammates as Daniel felt, which was only slightly comforting. Daniel cleared his throat, then asked Ferretti, "But isn't that why I'm going with you? Trying to get some of that drink they use for curing illness?"

"Yeah," Ferretti said, looking amused at his team's antics. "We saw them treating one of their people with some stuff they had, but we couldn't get any of it to bring back."

"Right." They'd been over that in the briefing--apparently, SG-2 had either tasted or brought back other substances that had very interesting properties, and the scientists wanted a sample of this, too. "You said it was supposed to be medicinal."

"Yeah, some of it's medicinal, and some of it's... _'medicinal,'_ " Warren said, shifting his seat away from Casey at the same time.

"Um," Daniel said warily, starting to wonder why no one had ever warned him that SG-2 was a little _non compos mentis_. And people said SG-1 was crazy. "I'm not sure I understand, sir."

"We'll handle the negotiation," Griff said, apparently taking pity on him. "You just make sure you tell us what they're saying and tell them what _we're_ saying."

"So, Jackson," Ferretti said turning more serious, "come with me to our ready room after lunch. I want to make sure you're set with the equipment."

Daniel nodded and took a nervous sip of water, trying to pretend the others weren't watching him out of the corner of their eyes and trying to make sure he didn't give anyone reason to think he couldn't do his job.

"You get recruited right out of high school?" Griff asked him finally. "How old are you, anyway?"

"Uh...almost eighteen years old?" he tried. The rest of SG-2 had been in the program since either the second Abydos mission or Chulak, and one of them scoffed at his answer. "It depends on how you count the years," he amended, because he _was_ around that age by Abydos's calendar.

"Good one," Ferretti said. Griff shook his head and didn't ask.

...x...

**_29 June 1998; SGC, Earth; 1300 hrs_ **

"You were looking a little nervous, so I want to make sure you're okay with this," Ferretti said as they entered the SG-2 ready room. "Don't worry; they're not always like that. Well, actually, they are, but they're harmless."

Harmless? Daniel thought of the last time he had seen Major Warren and Captain Casey in action--he didn't remember many faces or details from their escape from Chulak, but he knew both of them had been among the men shooting at the pursuing _udajeet_ and Jaffa. "Uh...sure. Sir."

"Harmless to you," Ferretti clarified with a smirk. "We take a little getting used to. Figured you'd be ready for anything after hanging around SG-1. All right, now, which teams have you gone out with before?"

Assuming an accidental trip or two with SG-1 didn't count, Daniel said, "SG-7 and SG-11."

"None of them gave you any shit?"

"No," he said, thinking that probably didn't mean what he thought it did.

Ferretti nodded. "Well, they're science teams. Not that anyone should be harassing you, but attitudes might've been different if you'd been with, say, SG-3 or -5."

"The Marine combat units don't usually take research trips, sir," Daniel pointed out. He could imagine, however, what Colonel Makepeace would say if someone suggested that they take Daniel along on one of their reconnaissance missions.

"Tomorrow's thing isn't for research, either, Jackson," the major said. "Don't forget that. There shouldn't be any problems, but keep it simple. Talk to them, pick up some of their stuff, and come home. Oh, and another thing: you're under my command for this mission, but on base, don't ' _sir'_ me every two sentences. Sounds weird coming from you."

"It's just...you always call me by my last name," Daniel said. "Except the night you came to Abydos." Lou had told jokes to Daniel that night, but the next time they exchanged words, it had been Ferretti and Jackson, the way it was with most of the other personnel.

Ferretti paused in opening a locker. "That was kind of a bad night for both of us, wouldn't you say?"

Daniel winced, remembering just then, "You were wounded. I heard about that." Some missions became legend, and by now, the stories of Apophis's strike at Nagada and the subsequent escape from Chulak were nearly as well known around the SGC as the stories of the Rebellion were on Abydos. Daniel didn't remember seeing Ferretti in that battle, specifically, but he remembered the cheers and good-natured ribbing when the major and Captain Casey both recovered enough for SG-2 to finally undertake their first exploration mission.

Ferretti shrugged and began pulling out the equipment they would bring with them. "Yeah, well. Got back enough of the vision in my eye to pass Air Force regs eventually. And at least I wasn't around to see my friend get snaked."

Major Kawalsky--Daniel wouldn't ever forget _that_ , either. "I didn't know you were friends," he said thoughtlessly, then backtracked hastily and added, "I mean--um. I'm sorry" _\--Lou? Ferretti? Safer to stay with--_ "Major." Perhaps a mutual friendship with Kawalsky was why Jack had so quickly become friendly with Ferretti while merely professional with many other officers like Major Harper.

"Yeah, me too," Ferretti said evenly. He stopped with a locker open and said, "I guess I've never said, Daniel, but your parents seemed like good people. I'm sorry about what happened to them."

Daniel nodded, his gaze skittering away. "Me too."

Ferretti broke the brief silence by slapping the locker shut. "Okay. Here we go. Now, we made Rothman practice with a handgun before he came with us the first time, but if anything had gone wrong, we would've still tried to protect him because he doesn't have combat training. Protocol will be similar for you, except that you won't be packing."

Daniel paused in looking through the vest to make sure it was the same he'd had to wear on previous off-world trips. "Packing what?"

Ferretti grinned now in amusement. "Heat, Daniel. You're not carrying a firearm."

"Wouldn't it make more sense just to teach me what you taught Robert?"

"He already had a general idea of how to hold and fire a handgun before we ever got to him, so I didn't actually do much except take him to the shooting range and make sure he knew which end was which. I don't think you'll get permission to carry a gun through the 'gate without proper training on safety and everything."

"I'm not going to carry anything, then?" Daniel asked as he examined the vest contents Ferretti had spread on a bench. On previous official trips, he had had no more than the archaeological tools he and Robert had brought, but all of SG-2's talk of _'just in case'_ was making him nervous to be walking in empty-handed. Maybe first-contact teams simply had to be more concerned with ' _just in case_ ' than primary research teams were.

"No firearms," the major said. "For what it's worth in your situation, it's kind of against the law in this state, anyway, your age and all, without special permission. The people on '595 don't have long-range weapons; you'll have a bayonet and other standard gear, and if someone gets close enough to hit you, you'll be close enough to hit back."

Oh. Well. "You...don't _really_ think..." Daniel said.

"Nothing'll happen," Ferretti assured him. "The people are very nice, and we'll be there to guard you. Besides," he added, "Colonel O'Neill would be pissed if you got hurt under my watch, and I don't want Colonel O'Neill pissed at me."

It wasn't the first time someone had said something to suggest Jack had authority over him, but he didn't argue. Now that he lived in Jack's home some of the time, and after he had spent so much of the last months with him and SG-1, it was close to the truth, in practice if not officially.

"Now," the major went on, gesturing, "you see anything unfamiliar here?"

Daniel passed an eye over the tactical vest again. "I know what these are," he said, pointing to what he recognized as field dressings, "but I don't have first aid training."

"You don't need to worry about that too much. Captain Casey's our primary medic, but we all bring extra supplies. Just--"

"--just in case," Daniel finished.

"You're catching on," Ferretti said approvingly. "So..."

"Yes, I've seen everything else before."

"All right. Seriously, don't look so nervous," Ferretti added. "I've seen your work, and I was there when you dug up the information about Hathor and all. If I thought you were gonna screw up or get hurt, you wouldn't be coming, whatever the objective."

"Okay," Daniel said, not sure how he was supposed to make himself look less nervous.

"Oh, and one more rule: no running through crowds of enemy Jaffa with a bomb in your hands."

Daniel looked up sharply. "Wha--"

Ferretti laughed at his expression. "My team and I just _barely_ missed out on the action on that one. The way rumors fly around here, you didn't think blowing up a couple of Goa'uld motherships in Earth's orbit would get around? Everyone knows everything about your little adventure with SG-1. Colonel O'Neill says you're not bad with a zat gun."

"From a hand's width away, perhaps," he said, not really comfortable thinking about those tense hours hiding on Klorel's _hatak_. Then he processed the rest of the sentence and asked incredulously, "Wait, _Jack_ said that?"

"Yeah. He wanted to switch civilians with me, but I said I was keeping you."

"No, the general said you were keeping me, because SG-1 needs Robert Rothman to read Maya," Daniel corrected. "And I doubt it had anything to do with skill with a _zat'nik'tel_." It probably had more to do with Jack wanting him under SG-1's eye, though he didn't say that aloud.

"True. But," Ferretti said with a competitive smirk, replacing everything and closing the locker, "we'll see tomorrow who got the better deal."

XXXXX

**_30 June 1998; P3A-577; 0800 hrs_ **

"You have no idea what they're saying, do you, Rothman?" Jack said.

The archaeologist glared at him, clearly frustrated after more than a day of struggling to communicate. "It's not like I've ever heard the language before, Colonel."

"I thought you could speak it!"

"I recognized some of the hieroglyphs that the MALP showed, and everyone else apparently assumed the rest. And if this is some form of Proto-Mayan, it's undergone changes in the, the writing system, as well as sound and possibly syntactic changes, and that's assuming that Campbell and Kaufman's reconstruction of Proto-Mayan was correct to begin with, which means I can't even communicate properly in writing using the syllabic--"

"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Jack growled. "It's like Abydos '82 all over again."

"Except on Abydos, you had an Egyptologist in an Egyptian culture and a trained linguist who was used to working with the Egyptian culture," Rothman returned. "I'm an Egyptologist trying to figure out an _extinct Mayan language_ that's evolved over a few thousand years! This was not covered in my masters curriculum."

"So what the hell have you been doing the last...twenty hours?"

"They still use logograms I recognize. So between that and some...non-verbal...uh, gestural communication--"

"Charades," Jack summarized helpfully.

Rothman scowled. "There are other ways of gathering information besides talking directly to the inhabitants--I've done it for years at various excavation sites without having a single living person to talk to. For example, just by looking at the--"

"Well, don't tell _me_ ," Jack snapped. "Just...go and do...archaeological stuff, then. And try to get some info out of them. Teal'c, make sure no one kills him," he added, nodding toward the archaeologist as he started off. "Wait, where are you--Rothman, the people are in the village _that_ way!"

Rothman didn't stop and called back, "I'm not too good with people. Too recent." Teal'c stoically lifted his staff weapon and followed. Rothman made for a bigger, uninhabited building--a temple, the man had said--ignoring the locals and leaning in to look at the...walls?

"'Not too good with people,'" Jack repeated in a mutter. "Never would've guessed."

He took off his cap and sighed. _Scientists_. And speaking of...

Carter looked up briefly from where she was still fiddling with one of her doohickeys. "Well, this is fun," he commented.

"Yes, sir, I'm having a great time," she said with a straight face, gesturing at her collection of what looked to Jack like rocks, dirt, and rocks covered with dirt.

"What _is_ it with you scientists and rocks?" he asked, pretending he hadn't spent the last twenty hours watching her out of the corner of his eye, like they'd all been watching her since the Goa'uld-Tok'ra-Joli-whatever took over her brain. "You're always bringing stuff back, and I never see what happens to it."

"Well, a lot of the time, we find certain minerals or even elements that we haven't seen on Earth," she explained, brushing off her hands and sitting back on her heels, looking professional as ever, because she'd never admit it to a superior officer if Jolinar was still on her mind. "But I can't recognize everything by sight, sir, and since I can't bring every piece of equipment with me, I take back samples for the geologists and chemists back home to analyze."

"Ah," he said. "But I still never see what happens to them once they _get_ home."

"It's not always something we can use practically," she admitted. "But sometimes it _is_ : naquadah, the P3L-110 soil that Janet Fraiser has been analyzing, the mineral on--" She caught sight of his face and refocused. "Most of _this_ soil here seems unremarkable, but there are tiny flecks that generate a detectable electromagnetic field and seem to react in the presence of different metals I'm carrying with me. It could be nothing special, but I suspect--"

"Carter--" He interrupted. "Magnets?"

Carter winced like the description physically pained her, but repeated resignedly, "Yes, sir. Magnets," and went right back to playing with her rocks.

"Look," Jack said after watching her work for a while, "I'm thinking of just telling Rothman to pack it up. You've got your stuff to bring back, and this is looking like a pretty primitive planet. I don't really think we're gaining anything by staying here."

The captain paused in what she was doing. "It's your call, sir," she said neutrally.

Except that they were scheduled to stay and poke around for another nearly ten hours. There had been more pushing recently from the research departments (okay, so it was partly Carter and mostly Rothman's department, with him and Daniel the loudest of the lot) for meet-and-greets that lasted longer than the few hours it took to look for Goa'ulds and test the soil, because apparently, cultural enrichment was important and could lead to more of the knowledge about engineering and weapons capabilities that they actually cared about.

The general had agreed and told them to stick around to learn what they could learn. Carter had been pleased. Teal'c had raised an eyebrow. Jack imagined that meant that the Jaffa was as bored with this as he was, but it was hard to tell.

He sighed again. "Never mind. Carry on."

XXXXX

**_30 June 1998; P3X-595; 1200 hrs_ **

"He wants us to follow him to the origin of the water," Daniel said, glancing back to include both Warren and Ferretti. "It's not far--just a few minutes' walk from here."

"The 'origin?'" Ferretti repeated. "This better not be some hocus-pocus magic pitcher or something."

Daniel restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "It's the closest word I know. I think it's a...a...pond. It wasn't that they didn't want to share it; they just didn't know what you were asking for. They'll let us collect some for ourselves."

He didn't mention that Khentei, the man who seemed to be the leader here, thought Warren's heavily accented and ungrammatical Abydonian was amusing, in the way small children's speech was amusing. Daniel made a note to use things like this back home as evidence for why more people needed to take learning Egyptian dialects more seriously.

Now Khentei frowned slightly for the first time since their arrival. " _Does this displease your men?_ " he asked.

" _No, it does not displease them,_ " Daniel replied quickly. " _I misspoke, so they were simply confused._ " To the others, he translated, "He's asking what the delay is."

"All right," Ferretti decided. "Let's go see this pond."

" _Please show us_ ," Daniel said, and Khentei's usually jovial expression returned. " _We will follow you there._ "

" _You will see--it is miraculous!_ "

The man chattered to them while they made their way away from the center of the village, alternately directing questions to Daniel, Warren, and Ferretti, apparently sensing that the latter two were in charge, even if he couldn't speak to them directly. It was starting to make Daniel's head whirl, constantly changing languages, especially when one of them was spoken in a completely unfamiliar accent with some odd influence that reminded him of modern Arabic but wasn't quite that, but that was part of the fun.

Being able to speak modern Earth languages was one thing; learning to piece together the grammatical principles of ancient languages and following the twists that made it unique to a world over millennia--Daniel was already faster than Robert at it, and he was sure he could get even faster with enough study and practice. Now he just had to work on _getting_ more chances to practice.

When the water came into view, Ferretti leaned toward him and said in a mock whisper, "Hey, boy wonder--that's what we call a 'big-ass lake,' not a 'pond.'"

"What's the difference?" he whispered back, not sure whether the man was joking.

Ferretti snorted. "That would be the 'big-ass' part."

" _Come closer_ ," Khentei urged, already kneeling at the edge of the lake and gesturing to the water. " _This is the source. You would like to take some with you? Come._ "

"He says to go closer so we can bring some of it back," Daniel said, walking forward himself. A hand pulled him back before he could take more than a step.

"Casey," Ferretti said, still holding onto the back of Daniel's vest, "you're up."

"Yes, sir," the captain answered, pulling several small glass bottles from his pack.

"It's just water," Daniel complained to Ferretti.

"Yeah. Where'd you learn to swim, again--in the desert or twenty-eight floors underground?"

"You know, there _is_ water on Abydos." He had never learned to swim or waded in anything more than knee-deep, though, so he added indignantly, "And it's not as if I'm going to fall in." He pulled himself out of the man's grasp but held his place. Robert would be the first to tell him there were ways of gaining information without being directly in the action, anyway. Then again, Robert probably would have seen something by now in the surrounding land or architecture or clothing, even, but since Khentei was here, just talking to the man was simpler.

" _Where does this water come from?_ " Daniel asked their guide. " _I do not see a river that feeds it._ "

" _From the rains, of course._ "

He frowned. " _Then...is there something you put in it, to give it its healing abilities?_ " Surely this lake wasn't simply full of rainwater.

" _No, no_ ," Khentei said. " _We never alter the water here. This place was once thought to be blessed by the gods who brought us into this world, but it has retained its power even after they abandoned us._ "

Huh. "I don't understand how that works," Daniel told Ferretti.

Ferretti looked at him. "And I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sorry. I mean, he says this"--he gestured toward the lake--"is just rainwater."

"Well, there's gotta be something special about their rain, then," Griff suggested. "Maybe all their water's like that."

"No way," Warren said. "We've drunk their water, and it was regular water."

"Speak for yourself," Casey muttered.

"Yeah, well, this stuff looks different," Warren insisted.

Daniel took a closer look at the lake and saw that it wasn't completely clear--not muddy or dirty, like the pond (lake?) Jack had shown him before while fishing, but slightly clouded nonetheless. "Are you sure it really worked as medicine?"

"Well, whatever this is, it's not the same as normal water, that's all I know," Ferretti said. "And don't let them fool you--they're not industrialized, but they've got a lot of nifty chemicals."

"Khentei said it has something to do with this place," Daniel said.

"So something about the land here? Like...something that leaches into the water, you think?"

Daniel asked dutifully, then told them, "He doesn't know what causes it. But... _Can we take some of the land with us?_ " he asked Khentei. When the man looked a little worried, he assured, " _We only want a little bit of the soil._ " He held up a thumb and forefinger to show the tiny amount they would take back for analysis.

" _Why would you want that?_ " Khentei asked curiously.

" _We are peaceful explorers_ ," Daniel explained, " _and we like to learn as much as we can. We would like to study your land, if you let us._ "

Khentei considered, then bowed slightly, gesturing in welcome. " _Then I see no problem. And when you have finished, perhaps you will all join us for a meal and a drink before you depart?_ "

"He said we can take some soil samples back with us," Daniel told Ferretti, making sure Casey could hear him, too. "And he invited us to stay and share a drink with them before we leave."

Warren coughed. Casey paused in the middle of capping a vial. "Yeah. Not happening," he said flatly.

"What if I made it an order?" Warren said.

"I'll risk the court-martial," Casey shot back. Ferretti grinned again and clapped Daniel on the shoulder.

XXXXX

**_30 June 1998; P3A-577; 1700 hrs_ **

"Primitive?" Rothman said, looking surprised. "Why would you think that?"

"Why? Well..." Jack said, gesturing around them. "What do you call it?"

"Not _primitive_ , exactly," Carter clarified, "but there's no electricity and no other developed power source. We haven't seen any signs of water transport, or the kind of machinery that would be needed to develop really advanced technology...nothing."

"But look at the architecture around here," Rothman countered. "Just the way the stones fit together indicates quarrying techniques much more advanced than the pre-Columbian Mayans on Earth, even at later stages. And Egyptians and Mayans were both building pyramids millennia before we invented machines of the industrial era. These structures are much more complex than even the pyramids and ziggurats we've seen on Earth, and that's the least of what I've seen."

"I thought we decided Egyptian pyramids were built with Goa'uld technology," Jack said, though he glanced up at the building behind them and conceded that it did look pretty impressive. "How do with know old Zippy didn't build these buildings, too?"

Rothman huffed. "Ancient humans knew enough that they could have built pyramids themselves. If anything, the Goa'uld probably borrowed their ideas or even slowed them down. Besides, judging by what I can piece together, the Goa'uld Zipacna ruled here and then left centuries ago. Obviously, you can tell these buildings were built much more recently than that."

"Ah. Obviously."

"Zipacna is only a minor Goa'uld," Teal'c added. "He allies himself with whichever System Lord he believes to be most powerful but rarely wields significant influence on his own. The type of technology we have witnessed on this world is not of Goa'uld origin; I believe it was developed by its human inhabitants."

"Yeah," Rothman said, nodding emphatically. "What he said. Zipacna's a demon in mythology, violent and, uh...well, loud, but not a major deity. And have you even looked at the jewelry around here?"

Jack exchanged a bewildered glance with Carter. "Not...really in the market."

"They incorporate metals into their decorations, which, granted, isn't unusual, but given the scarcity of pure metals in their environment, or even the more easily usable ores, and the precision of their work...that means they understand metalworking techniques and how to refine and process rare metals that are available in very small quantities. And, here's the best part...I have _never_ seen this metal before, Colonel--"

"We're not calling them ignorant," Carter told him patiently. "Maybe they're a more advanced civilization than we'd given them credit for, but the point is, we're due back home in two hours, Dr. Rothman. Metalworking, quarrying...we have ways of doing that. We won't be learning anything new."

"But have you _seen_ the metal they've been wearing around?"

"Thought we already established that was a 'no,'" Jack said.

"It's like nothing I've ever seen," Rothman insisted. "I'm not an expert on metals, but this thing...it's hard, I mean, like, _really_ hard. As in, you can use it to... _cut_ things, like..."

"Sweet," Jack drawled. "Wait--I think I saw something like that on Earth. We call it a _knife_."

"Do you have a lot of knives that can cut through rocks and _glass_ without getting dull, Colonel?" Rothman retorted. "And it's not crystal or anything--it's some really light metal I've never seen. I mean, you're the ones who always want things for weapons. I think this is worth looking into."

Teal'c spoke up, then. "I, too, observed the unique properties of this material, O'Neill. It is indeed remarkable."

Jack felt his eyebrows rise, because what was remarkable to an alien with a snake in his gut who was used to riding on spaceships? "Guess we should bring some back, then."

"Well, like I said," Rothman hedged, suddenly more hesitant, "it's rare around here. I don't think they're going to give us more than a tiny bit of it. And then there's still that communication issue..."

"Can you get us a 'tiny bit of it,' then?" Jack asked impatiently.

Rothman hesitated. "Um. Yeah. Just give me some time."

"Rothman--"

"I'm trying!"

Jack sighed and checked his watch. "Two hours," he warned. "Then we're out of here."

XXXXX

**_1 July 1998; SGC, Earth; 1100 hrs_ **

"So how'd the mission go, Colonel?" Major Ferretti asked when SG-1 stepped out from their debriefing the next day, Robert on their heels. Daniel hung back slightly, watching as his friends filed out.

Jack stopped, looking at the two of them. "Why?"

"No reason, sir," Ferretti said. "Just curious."

"We got magnetic knives," Jack said in the faux-ignorant tone he liked to adopt.

"We brought back a sample of a metal," Sam explained. "It has an incredible modulus and yield strength when refined--much higher than steel, in fact, while being much less dense. There's not a whole lot of it on P3A-577--not enough to give us a usable supply--but it's enough of the refined material and some ore to do some preliminary studies." Robert was looking unusually smug. "They're thinking of calling it 'trinium.'"

Daniel tilted his head. "Trinium? Why?"

Sam shrugged. "Don't ask me; they settled on it upstairs. What about SG-2--Major Ferretti, you went to...P3X-595, was it?"

"What is this, a contest?" Robert asked, looking between all of them.

"You said it, Dr. R., not me," Ferretti said.

Jack shrugged. Teal'c tilted his head curiously, looking between the two of them. Then Robert raised his eyebrows competitively at Daniel, who happily answered the challenge.

"We figured out what's in the medicine that Janet wanted to see," Daniel said.

"We all assumed it was some substance they put in the drink," Ferretti explained. "Turns out, it comes straight from their lakes, no doctoring, so we brought back some soil and rock samples. They've already found some bugs in it that make some protein that gets into the water. They're still analyzing it, but Dr. Fraiser says there're all sorts of possible uses for it."

"Bugs?" Jack repeated.

"Micro-bugs," Ferretti clarified. "Bacteria. Not dangerous to humans."

"Janet says it's probably a new species," Daniel added.

"Not unlikely," Sam pointed out, "given that it's an organism from an alien planet with a generation time of probably a few minutes."

"Yeah, well," Ferretti said. "They live on something in the dirt that's rare on their planet but not rare on ours...don't ask me any more about it," he said when Sam opened her mouth. "I don't know. It sounded pretty cool, though."

Jack considered them for a minute. "We win," he said finally.

"What?" Daniel burst out. "What do you mean? You even said there wasn't enough of your trinium to use for anything."

"We would've had to study it first, anyway, to know what it can do," Sam said, the beginnings of a smile pulling at her lips. "The possibilities for weapons or defensive technology are enormous, not to mention other applications. At least this way, we'll know what we can do with it once we find it, and we know now to look for it on other planets, too."

"And how much of your stuff did you bring back?" Jack added. "It's not like there's a giant vat of mud in one of the labs."

"How would you know?" Daniel said, even though SG-2 had only brought back tiny vials of samples. "When's the last time you were in those labs?"

A pause. Then, "Daniel, is there's a giant vat of alien mud in one of the labs?"

"Well, they want to clone the gene that does it," Ferretti said, "so we can synthesize it _without_ a vat of mud. Besides," he added, surprising Daniel by clapping him on the shoulder again, "they've agreed to let us come back and visit if we need to, in exchange for teaching them to use the Stargate and their DHD. They're willing to teach us about their other chemical techniques."

"P3A-577 said _we_ could go back, too," Jack countered, eyeing Ferretti's hand on Daniel's arm. " _And_ Rothman got them to agree without even speaking the language, so there."

Daniel ducked away and glanced at Robert, who said, "We're still here, you know," though he had a distinctly satisfied air about him.

Ferretti looked at Daniel, a mischievous grin spreading over his face as he turned to Jack. "Can we keep 'em, Colonel?"

Daniel looked hopefully at Jack, knowing Ferretti was teasing but hoping a but nonetheless.

He fully expected Jack to joke back or protest, but surprisingly, it was Sam who spoke up. "Don't expect all missions to be like this. They were friendly people without advanced weaponry, no Goa'uld remaining on the planet, no locals thinking _we_ were Goa'uld or invaders and trying to kill us... Not all of them end as well as these two did."

"It's possible that some of them would be more _likely_ to end well if you had teammates who could communicate better with the locals, Captain," Robert pointed out.

"We could communicate with the locals on Nasya," Sam said, a shadow passing over her face but disappearing just as quickly. "Or at least Teal'c could, and they were plenty friendly. It doesn't mean unexpected things don't happen."

"Some of us are willing to take that chance," Daniel said.

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

"But _Jack_ ," Daniel sighed, "we really...wait, wha--what? _Yes_?"

"No," Jack told him. "Not exactly. But...we do know it can be useful. The general's been rethinking the policy about civilian scientists going off-world for missions that involve unknown situations. Wants to start with the two of you for now, since you've been the most annoying about it."

"Really? Me and Robert?" he said, deciding to ignore the 'annoying' part.

"It's partly the alternate Jackson's fault," Jack said with an exasperated look at Daniel.

"Why are you looking at me?" Daniel asked indignantly.

"The point is, he was part of what got the general thinking about taking civilians off-world more. But it also means we'll be putting you through a lot more training if you're up for it. We can't bring along a possible advantage that turns into a handicap."

"Okay, um," Robert said, "I thought the idea was that _you_ protect _us_ when we go off-world."

Jack looked at him seriously. "We do. But it might not be good enough. 'First-contact' sounds nice, but what it means is that we can be called on to be a diplomatic, research, _or_ combat team, and we never know which one it's going to be until we get there. If it comes to a fight, and you're caught in it, you're gonna want to know what to do. How's it sound now, Doctor?"

Robert looked a little more wary at the word 'combat' but said, "I'd rather stick to research, but I'd be willing to do it, and I think it's a good idea for front-line teams. As for training--I was a decathlon champion in college. I think I can handle it." Jack looked surprised at that but didn't comment.

"Good enough. Lou, you willing to take a civilian with you on your team?" he asked.

"Civilian or military, we always take a bunch of training missions first, until everyone's used to the new teammate," Ferretti said, more serious now that they weren't joking around anymore. "I'm not walking onto a possibly hostile planet unless I know everyone can handle it. But safe planets, sure--in fact, we're still breaking in Griff, and we could take another with us."

"By 'safe,'" Sam added in warning, "we mean a planet that _looks_ safe. It doesn't necessarily mean it actually is; unexpected things happen all the time. That's the risk you'll be taking."

"It's the risk _you_ take, too, Sam, all of you," Daniel retorted, more irritated than exasperated, because how was it fair that he and other civilians had to sit back and watch their friends risking their lives all the time, when they were all working toward the same goal in the end? Why did 'civilian' have to mean 'less brave' to them? "We can learn just like anyone."

"You'll learn, or you'll stay back here on base," Jack said sternly. "Dr. Rothman, I'll set you up with Staff Sergeant Alipto for regular training in the gym. If Ferretti agrees, you'll both start joining SG-1 or -2 for occasional training missions, _if_ a planet appears to be safe after preliminary analysis. You can still take small assignments with other teams, too, if they need you for research or translation. When you're ready, you'll be approved for regular first-contact and can be assigned to an off-world team's permanent roster."

"Okay with me," Ferretti said.

"Who decides when we're ready?" Daniel asked suspiciously, because if it were up to Jack, he'd be grounded on base forever.

"Mostly, what you two need is a little practical experience, so that's up to me and Major Ferretti," Jack told him. "For physical assessment, that decision's up to the trainer for Dr. Rothman. Daniel, I want to wait until we're sure what the situation is with you and Abydos first. It's just a month and a half before their 'gate opens, and like the general said, we're not bringing you into danger without permission from Kasuf."

"I'm already working with Teal'c in the gym when he's not off-world," Daniel said, glancing at Teal'c and determinedly putting aside the thought of how close it was now, the return to his homeworld.

"And you can keep doing that," Jack said. "For now, the general's leaving your physical assessment up to Teal'c and me, since you've been working with us already. If Kasuf doesn't have a problem with any of this, then we'll think about stepping it up." Daniel's eyebrows rose in surprise, but Jack was wearing what Daniel thought of as his commander's expression, and he wasn't sure about how he was supposed to respond to that one.

"I understand," Daniel said, because it was a huge concession compared to what Jack had been willing to allow before. Teal'c was stricter than Jack and nearly as protective, but Daniel knew the Jaffa didn't have a problem letting him participate, unlike how Jack hesitated about it.

After all, it was Teal'c who had planted the suggestion for Daniel to keep fighting the Goa'uld in the first place and who continued to teach him even now. Sometimes he suspected Teal'c was just wishing he were teaching Rya'c the ways of a warrior and was teaching Daniel instead, but that was understandable, and at the end of the day, the two of them never pretended to be anything they weren't. If Teal'c was willing to teach him, Daniel was willing to learn, be it _lok'nel_ fighting or Jaffa history and legends.

"I'm assuming I'll take Daniel with me more often," Ferretti said, "since you've got your own Goa'uld language expert, Jack."

Jack hesitated, then said, "We'll see. Rothman, I'll leave you to work out scheduling between off-world business and your work here at home. Everyone okay with this?"

"Yeah, I guess," Robert said. "That's fine with me." Daniel nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Remember," Jack added, "cadets go through years of training before they get anywhere near ready for what we do. Obviously, your focus will be different, so your training won't be as intense on that end, but don't complain if it takes a while. I'll talk to a trainer for you, Dr. Rothman. Daniel, I'll talk to you later this week about scheduling "

"Sounds good," Ferretti said as he headed off in one direction. "Nice work, people."

Robert started for the elevator, telling Daniel, "Meet me upstairs, and we'll figure out how we want to manage our time."

When it was just him and SG-1 left in the hallway outside the briefing room, Daniel tilted his head and looked more closely at Jack's expression, trying to decide what was hiding behind the blankness, until Jack rolled his eyes and said, "What?"

He hesitated, then shrugged. "Thank you."

"I'm not kidding about training," Jack told him seriously. "You know better than Rothman how dangerous it can get. Your priority's still whatever you and Rothman do here at home, so unless you want to go join the doolies at the Academy for a couple of months of basic training, you're only gonna have a few hours a week devoted to training with me or Teal'c."

"I won't get impatient," Daniel promised, even though he kind of already was, a little, but he knew he'd been louder in pushing for this than Robert, and if they were loosening restrictions on civilian off-world work now, he wasn't going to complain.


	4. Rules

**_8 July 1998; SGC, Earth; 1500 hrs_ **

Jack stepped into the archaeology office, idly picking up a statuette of a skinny woman with inhuman proportions as he passed a shelf. "What are you up to?" he asked as he turned the thing over in his hands to examine it. Where did they get this stuff? "And where do you get this stuff?" he said. "I don't remember hearing about aliens with really long necks."

Rolling his eyes, Daniel looked up from his work. "That's from P48-564, and it's not supposed to be an accurate representation of a human. It's either decorative or some kind of votive figurine and"--Daniel reached out and deftly grabbed the wooden statuette from his hands to replace it carefully on the shelf--"stop playing with it, Jack. It's really old, and the oils in our hands--"

"Well, why do you guys have it sitting out, then?"

"Because we don't keep touching it all the time. SG-9 brought it back as a gift to the SGC, and if we're going to be continuing relations with the people, we shouldn't just pack away things that could tell us about their culture and what kind of society--"

"Aht!" Jack stopped him before it was too late. "Daniel, it's a...wooden statue of a long-necked woman."

"Oh, it's actually very interesting," Daniel told him, picking the damn thing up again, though he used a cloth to do it. "Look, see, the style is similar to that of artwork from ancient Greek civilizations on Earth, but you can see that it's not at all--see, here, look, Jack, look at how they did this, there's a--"

"It's a wood statue, Daniel," Jack repeated, not knowing what in the world he was supposed to be seeing, "and it has a long neck."

Daniel drooped a little. "It's really interesting," he said feebly.

"I'm...sure it is," Jack offered, feeling kind of bad now. "It's just not my thing. That's why you guys get paid the big bucks." A thought struck Jack as Daniel replaced the statue again. "Wait, are you getting paid now?" He was fairly certain he should have known about that, but...

An indifferent shrug answered him. "I wouldn't know what to do with it. I'm already getting room and--" he hesitated. "Uh..."

"Board," Rothman supplied, not looking up.

"I'm getting room and board on base, any reference materials we need are paid for by the department's funding, and there's even an allowance for my academic things, like textbooks--"

"That's it?" Jack asked. He wondered what currency they used on Abydos. Based on what they'd seen on Goa'uld planets so far, the most important currency on Abydos for over five thousand years had been Ra's favor, but there had to be something for day-to-day business in the human population. Maybe they had some kind of barter system, and Daniel saw it as a trade of his translations for things like a bed and food. "Daniel, a lot of personnel have rooms on base; yours is a little more frequently used is all. I'll talk to Hammond--"

"No, you didn't let me finish," Daniel interrupted him. "It will be easier for General Hammond to do everything if I'm officially a representative from Abydos, and that can't be official until I go back to Abydos and ask Kasuf." He hesitated, then went on. "Once that happens, they can create records for me as a citizen of Earth, and I'll actually have enough of an identity to be considered a...uh, an assistant researcher in the department."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Assistant?"

"Until I pass the GEDs," he said, wrinkling his nose in Rothman's direction. Rothman didn't seem to notice. "Anyway, I just do what Robert says to do, same as before."

"Yeah, but seriously, Daniel--"

"I just want to stay and help," Daniel interrupted. "It's the same for Teal'c. The SGC pays for what we need, and for both of us...well, if we get to the end of this war, or our peoples' situation changes, you know..."

"You'll go back," Jack said neutrally.

"Well, I don't...really know. That's the point. Do you think Teal'c won't go to help his people when the Jaffa are freed?"

Jack looked at Rothman, who shrugged. No doubt they'd talked about this up here, already. "All right. Well, then, have you two decided how you're going to run this off-world stuff?"

"Some of it will depend on who is more likely to be useful for the specific mission," Daniel said, glancing once at Rothman. "For training missions with SG-1 or -2, we're planning to alternate whenever something comes up. Outside of that, Robert has to handle the administrative business, too, and he's more experienced with in-depth analysis, so if it's a basic survey with another team, he'll stay on base, and I'll go and collect data and bring it back here for study."

"You sure you can handle that?" Jack said.

"We're both approved for research and peaceful negotiations," Daniel said, a little defensively. "I can handle it."

"Basically, Colonel," Rothman clarified, finally looking up from whatever he was doing, "Daniel will take more of the smaller off-world missions, and while he's on base, he'll be on call for emergencies or unexpected situations where we need him."

"Like the Nasya situation," Daniel said.

"Yeah, like that. I figure that'll keep him busy enough, so for the most part, so I'm not assigning him active, long-term research projects or other SGC busywork when he's on Earth."

"Ah," Jack said. "Frees up time for homework?"

"Yes," Daniel said, frowning. "Sam gives me math and physics assignments when she's bored, too, did you know that?"

"It's hard?" Jack guessed.

"It's _Sam_ ," he grumped.

Jack shrugged sympathetically.

"Anyway, as soon as I finish what I need to know to pass that test, I can concentrate on SGC work and training." Turning to Rothman, he added, "I still don't see why you want me to take a test so badly."

Rothman rolled his eyes, and Jack suspected they'd had the conversation many times before. "You'll be glad I did if you decide in a few years that you want formal education."

"Actually," Jack cut in when Daniel opened his mouth to respond, "Daniel, can you leave that stuff for an hour or so?"

"Now?" he asked, frowning. His eyes flicked toward the clock on the wall.

Jack walked past Rothman and stopped in front of Daniel's desk. "What are you so busy with now?"

"Well..." he answered, pointing at the textbook open on his desk.

"Is that a map of the US?" Jack said.

"I was trying to get some idea of..." He gestured toward the page with the map printed on it and thumbed idly through the following pages. "And then I'm meeting with Teal'c in the gym, and then for Goa'uld practice later this evening. I want to at least have some idea of where we live--oh, Jack, guess what?"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "What?"

Daniel flashed a quick smile. "Did you know there are two-hundred and fifty million people in this country?"

"That book's a few years out of date," Rothman told him. "We're closing in on three-hundred million, and about six _billion_ on Earth."

Daniel's eyes widened. "That's... really?"

"Really," Rothman said, amused.

"That's amazing; this state alone has about four million people--that's...that's more than there are on all of Abydos, probably. Maybe. I guess no one ever counted." Daniel sighed happily. Disgruntled though he might be about having to take an equivalence test to prove whatever it was supposed to prove, Jack suspected he was perfectly happy reading and learning the material. "You know...maybe that's because this is the first world of humans, but _Jack_...do you know how much culture and history must have been left by so many people over so many years?"

"I hope that's a rhetorical question, kid," Jack said.

"Well, yes, of course, that's not exactly something that can be quantified, but it's a lot to take in." He blinked up at Jack.

"Daniel," Rothman said patiently, "the colonel asked you a question."

"Oh, uh, sorry," Daniel said, pulling off his glasses. "What did you say?"

Judging by how easily Daniel soaked up things like Stargate coordinates and planet designations--and the populations of states, apparently--Jack thought he could assume the map was pretty well memorized by now. "Teal'c's helping the training instructor with a few newbies, so he said I could have you instead of your normal session with him," he said. "When were you going to meet with him? I just need an hour or so."

"An hour for what?"

"Ah..." Jack scratched his head. "I want you to have a few firearms safety lessons before you step off-world again."

This would have been easier if he weren't staring down at Daniel's _homework_ , of all things. Training a member of his team or a civilian consultant was one thing; training someone who was just now learning the capital of Colorado was another. Okay, so Teal'c probably hadn't known the capital of Colorado for a while, either, but that was different, and he had a gold tattoo melted into his skin to prove it.

He'd separate the two, that was all--Daniel the geeky kid at home; Mr. Jackson the Abydos liaison and language expert during training. He counted Carter as a friend off-duty and as a teammate and subordinate in the field, and they didn't have any problems with that. He'd just have to learn to do the same with Daniel. Simple. Right.

Besides, Jack had learned already that not knowing how to fire a weapon wouldn't save a child from being shot anyway.

He carefully pushed that thought aside, too.

Daniel's head was tilted thoughtfully, and Jack was relieved to see he at least wasn't too excited about it. People too eager to play with weapons often ended up too careless. "Major Ferretti said I wasn't allowed to take firearms off-world," he said.

"When you start going off-world, you're still not going to carry the same weapons that we do," Jack informed him. "You _will_ be around them a lot more, though, so you need to understand basic safety and how they work. Teal'c and I will decide what you're allowed to carry off-world." When he saw Daniel's lips twitch in not-quite-concealed distaste, he reminded, "It's for your own protection."

"No, I know," Daniel said quickly. "I'm sorry. I'll do whatever it takes."

"This has nothing to do with trust in you as a person," Jack said, and it was true--even now, he had as much faith in Daniel's good intentions as he did in just about anyone's. That didn't mean he was willing to stake people's lives on Daniel's aim or his ability to assess a situation, not yet. "But you'll be around us and possibly other friendlies, too. Think about that."

There were two surefire ways to make a person care about safety: make him fear for his own, or make him fear for his friends'. With Daniel, Jack was willing to do both.

"I wouldn't trust my shooting, either," Daniel agreed, not seeming at all offended. "I don't want to hit someone by accident."

"Or yourself," Jack couldn't stop himself from adding.

"Okay," Daniel said, taking a last look at his book and standing up. "I was going to go meet Teal'c soon, anyway. Robert, do you mind--"

Rothman waved at him. "Go. Just make sure you finish chapter twelve before the end of the day tomorrow. And, Daniel--listen to Colonel O'Neill for this, I mean it. I need you without a hole blown through you."

Daniel shot his mentor an odd look, while Jack suppressed a flinch and said flippantly, "What do you mean, 'for this?' If I could get him to listen to me all the time..."

"You would get bored," Daniel assured him, leading the way out of the office.

Jack nodded to the archaeologist, then strode forward to catch up with Daniel. "Okay. A few rules..."

XXXXX

**_8 July 1998; SGC, Earth; 1530 hrs_ **

"First rule," Jack said. "The gun is loaded."

Daniel looked around the empty SG-1 ready-room a little nervously, though he knew the only weapon here was the pistol Jack had brought from the armory. Still, he argued, "No, it's not. I just watched you unload it."

Jack gave him a Look.

"Oh. You mean I should _act_ like every gun is loaded."

"It's not just pretend," Jack warned him. "That's your default assumption. When we go off-world, we can't take the time to load our weapons if we come under fire, so most of the time, every gun around you _will_ be ready to fire."

"I'm not going to go around playing with people's guns."

"And if we find a society with similar weapons to ours? Or if one of ours is dropped for some reason and you pick it up?"

"Assume it's loaded," Daniel said obediently. "Tell an officer. If necessary, unload it completely and do not try to use it."

Jack nodded. "Unless--"

"Unless there's an emergency." Always, always, _'unless there's an emergency_. _'_ The problem was that there was always an emergency around here, or some unexpected situation that didn't fall within their protocols; that was the whole purpose of the SGC. "And then only for defense."

"Yeah. Were you watching me when I showed you how to check--"

"Remove the magazine," Daniel answered, a little impatiently, brushing his fingers against the pistol's grip where Jack had shown him before and then inching upward on the pistol. "Then check the chamber to see if it's empty. Yes, I was watching."

A hand clamped tightly over his wrist, making him look up into Jack's hard expression. "This isn't a game, Daniel."

"I know," he said again, trying to hide some exasperation. "I've been paying attention."

"I don't care. You _never_ stop being careful," Jack ordered, his voice becoming harsh. "Accidents happen."

Daniel understood--really, he did. Weapons weren't something to play around with. His parents had never let him pick up any of the ones left behind from the Rebellion. Even Skaara, who had handed him a knife and dared to take him hunting against their parents' wishes and who surely knew very little about the Tau'ri weapons himself, had forbidden Daniel to use firearms.

But considering what they saw around the SGC every day, he would have expected Jack to be more concerned about other things, like the fact that he sometimes strolled casually through the biohazard-rated labs without knowing a thing about the biohazards within, even though there was a small chance something could breach containment by accident. Like the fact that he regularly helped Robert study artifacts with unknown properties and devices with unknown functions, even though any of them could be dangerous. Besides, any weapon in a skilled person's hands could be deadly, be it a dagger or staff or _zat'nik'tel_.

He opened his mouth to say just that, but then, he caught a glimpse of the stark terror that in Jack's eyes. Whether or not they were the most dangerous things around here, Jack's extreme unease about Tau'ri firearms despite his own easy use of them was...different. Intensely personal somehow, in the way nothing was to Jack except his team and his family, and suddenly Daniel remembered learning that Jack's Charlie had died in an accident. Jack had never offered details, and Daniel knew better than to ask.

Daniel focused on that odd gleam of dread and forced himself not to pull away from the grip around his arm. "Yes, sir," he said seriously. "I understand. I wouldn't risk anyone's life by being thoughtless."

Jack seemed taken aback by the address but nodded once, the fear in his eyes dying down and sharpening to the brisk attentiveness that accompanied his commander's voice. "Good." He released Daniel and picked up the handgun, an empty magazine in the other. "Watch again."

This time, Daniel paid closer attention to Jack's smooth movements as he loaded, then unloaded the gun and loaded it one more time before replacing it on the table.

"Your turn. Pick it up, in your right hand." Jack waited until he obeyed, carefully pointing the gun toward the ground. "First, find the--no, Daniel, the _safety_ , always check the safety first. A lot of us keep our sidearms holstered for optimal response time."

A lot of people left the safeties off, he meant. Daniel flicked the latch on the slide off, then clicked it securely back on again. "Okay."

_"Now_ you can eject the--good. Put it down. Slide out the action. No rounds in the chamber, so slide it closed again. Okay?"

"Okay."

"You remember how I loaded it?"

"Yes."

"Do it."

By the time Jack was satisfied with his ability to load, unload, strip, and reassemble, the pistol--a Beretta, Jack said it was called--was starting to feel...not comfortable, perhaps, but less alien in Daniel's hand. It wasn't that complicated, really, until he remembered that he could use this thing in his hand to kill people with just a twitch of his finger, and then a chill ran through him.

He could barely remember the feeling of an Abydonian reed pen in his fingers, or the texture of hand-pressed papyrus scrolls, and he wondered what his parents would have said if they could see him now, learning to hold and manipulate a weapon of war. Or what they would have said about the calluses forming on his hands from holding a _bashaak_ training staff accompanying the smaller ones on his fingers from holding a pen.

"Something wrong?" Jack said quietly.

"No," he denied, not meeting Jack's eyes. He cleared his throat and raised his head. "Okay. Again?"

Jack's sharp gaze said he wasn't fooled, but he didn't comment, either. "Leave it for now. From now on, every time you pick up one of these--whether you're learning about maintenance, or anything else--you'll want to check and make sure you know what you're holding. Things like this need to become second nature."

_What will it mean when this is second nature?_ "Okay," Daniel said again, putting the gun uneasily back down on the table.

"Daniel," Jack said, then waited until he looked up. "I'm not telling you to go around shooting people. You should be trying to avoid situations when you'd need to. But you're in a dangerous line of work, you know that, and if you know how to use the weapons around you, there'll be less of a chance that someone'll get hurt needlessly."

"I know." He did. He knew it. He would just need to remind himself until he believed it.

"All right," Jack said. "Next rule. Never point your gun at something you're not willing to kill."

"Mm-hm," Daniel said, and had to resist to urge to take a step back.

"If you're _not_ specifically trying to hit something," Jack went on, "know exactly where it's pointing so you don't accidentally shoot someone in the foot. And always know whether or not the safety's on. Pick up the gun."

Daniel reached for the pistol and automatically ejected the magazine into his hand, then stopped, embarrassed. "Sorry."

"Second nature doesn't mean without thinking, Jackson," Jack said sharply. "You open it up to see what's in it, not because it's muscle memory. Load it back up."

Daniel inserted the empty magazine again, holding the pistol awkwardly in his hand.

"Show me your grip. No," Jack said immediately. "You'll lose your grip if you fire it like that. And use both hands. Look at the angles in your arms--the more force you let your bones take, the less you have to strain your muscles. Here..."

He let Jack steer him so that he was facing a blank concrete wall and adjust his fingers around the pistol and his feet on the ground.

"That feel comfortable?" Jack asked when he was aiming the empty gun toward the wall.

"Uh. Yes."

"Sure?"

"No," Daniel admitted.

"Hold it. You know what recoil feels like?" Jack asked. Then, while Daniel was turning the word 'recoil' over in his mind, without warning, Jack hit his finger hard against the bottom of the barrel. The gun jerked upward in Daniel's hands, making him start. He brought it quickly back into line and realigned his fingers.

"See, right there," Jack said. "If you feel like it's jumping out of your hands and need to readjust, you need to change something about how you're holding it. Squeeze too tight and you'll get tired; hold it at the wrong angle, and you'll drop it. You'll figure it out if you practice enough."

"It always does that when you fire?" Daniel asked, lowering his hands. "Jumps?"

Jack looked a little surprised, but said, "Something like that. That's what we mean when we say 'recoil.'"

"Why?"

"Why?" Jack repeated.

Daniel thought of a snake stretching itself to its full length and then coiling back on itself again and couldn't imagine what that had to do with a gun trying to leap out of his hands. "Yes--why?"

Jack seemed to think he was asking about the mechanism, though, rather than the etymology, and answered, "It's...well, when something gets spat out in one direction, something else has to get thrown back the other way. Ah..."

"Equal and opposite reaction." There were archers on Abydos, and a bow snapped back when the arrow left its string. It was one of those simple physics concepts that made common sense, and he supposed a bullet would cause more _recoil_ because it was so much faster than an arrow.

"Yeah, that's right. That's how it works," Jack confirmed. "You can get a pretty good kick when you fire. That's one reason why it's so important to know how to hold the gun and how to stand, so you're braced against the recoil. I want you to know how it feels to fire a gun, so it doesn't surprise you if you find yourself having to use a weapon off-world."

Daniel tried not to think of the kinds of situations that would require him to use someone else's gun and commented instead, "I don't remember feeling that from the _zat'nik'tel_."

"Yeah, me neither," Jack admitted. "You'd have to ask Carter about how Goa'uld energy weapons work. But projectile weapons, like this here--trust me. It'll take some practice."

Despite living in such proximity to so much Tau'ri weaponry, he had only actually seen a gun fired on three occasions: the last night on Abydos, when Skaara, his Guardsmen, and the Tau'ri soldiers had fired upon Apophis; the escape from Chulak; and the night when they'd snuck onto Klorel's _hatak_. "Should I practice, then?" he asked.

"With someone watching," Jack said. "Ah...sometime, I'll take you to the range so you get a feel for it and how to use it if you have to. But anytime you could be in danger, your first job is to try to get yourself somewhere so you _don't_ have to use it."

"Okay."

"Now, look at your hands. See where your pointer finger is, on the trigger? Third rule: your finger stays out of the trigger guard unless you have your target in your sights and you're ready to start shooting. You don't want to squeeze the trigger by accident."

Daniel quickly readjusted. "Then what do I do with..."

"Leave your finger against the frame," Jack instructed, coming around behind him. He braced one hand on Daniel's shoulder and wrapped the other loosely around Daniel's grip on the gun, tapping the place to demonstrate. "From here, it's easy to slip into the trigger guard, and it stays out of the way." He stepped back. "Fourth rule. What happens if I'm aiming over there?"

Daniel dropped his hands again and looked in the direction Jack indicated, where he stood as if holding an imaginary pistol. "You'll hit the door?" he answered. "And whoever's on the other side, maybe," he added, not knowing how strong these projectiles were. Sometimes they even went through metal--he'd seen that for himself, and Teal'c had shown him the weak points in Jaffa armor.

"Yeah," Jack said sternly. "That's the point. Make sure you know what your target is, but always make sure you know what's _behind_ it, too, and around it. Sometimes a bullet can penetrate and keep going straight through. Or someone could open that door and try to come in. If you're in the field, you could miss and hit someone behind or to the side of your target. You don't fire without knowing exactly what could be out there, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Tell me those rules again."

Daniel tilted his head and thought back. "Uh...first, every gun is loaded..."

When he could repeat and explain them all without faltering, Jack stopped him. "That's all we're going to do for now; put it down. Next time, I'll go over the other weapons you'll be seeing most often, show you how they work. Each one is a little different. Some don't have an external safety; some have different trigger actions; some have levers and catches on different sides of the weapon. You need to be able to recognize or adapt to anything you might end up holding. I'll take you to the range to get a little practice in with one of the zats, maybe get an idea of what pistol fire feels like. If I think you'll need a range weapon off-world, you'll bring a zat."

"Why--oh, because the first shot won't kill, of course. That makes sense." The first shot was fatal only to very small beings, Teal'c had said. And to infant humans, sometimes, although healthy Jaffa children would survive the first hit. Daniel very carefully hadn't asked how Teal'c knew either of those facts.

"Exactly," Jack said. "I don't need you to achieve sharpshooter proficiency, but you have to at least know what to expect when you squeeze the trigger. And next time we're at home, remind me to show you where I keep my personal gun, too."

"I didn't know you had one in your house," Daniel remarked, laying the pistol back down on the table.

It was several seconds before Jack answered, and when he did, the words were brisk. "Well, you should know. It's in my room, so you've just never seen it."

"Oh. I wouldn't go into your room, Jack."

"If you're gonna be staying with me, you need to know where stuff like that is. It's an accident waiting to happen otherwise, the way you prowl around when you're bored."

Daniel opened his mouth to say indignantly that he wouldn't prowl into Jack's personal things, but then he thought about those words again and decided to shut up. Maybe it was an accident waiting to happen, and maybe it was an accident that already had.

"Jack," he asked, "did...I mean..." He hesitated another moment, then said, "Never mind." There was a time for questions, but, like Teal'c had told him more than once, there was a time for silence, too.

Jack heard it anyway. "My son died because he didn't know, Daniel," he said flatly, gathering everything together efficiently. "So don't fool around."

Daniel swallowed. "Yes, sir." Jack gave him another odd look, and Daniel realized that, if he wasn't used to Jack acting like his commander even in small ways, Jack probably wasn't used it, either. He dropped his gaze first, not sure whether he was excited to know he was slowly finding his way into the SGC chain of command or disturbed that his friends were increasingly becoming his superiors and co-workers.

"Anyway," Jack said, motioning him out of the room, "from now on, when we're all on base, you'll spend about a session each week participating in drills with SG-1 or -2, or with me, until you get an idea of how to communicate with the group and what to do with the standard weapons."

"What if you and Major Ferretti are both off-world?"

"Then you're Dr. Rothman's."

Daniel nodded. "Once a week, then?" It didn't seem like very much, really.

"For now, yeah," Jack said. "Those will be the sessions you're required to attend--I'll make sure you know who to report to those days--but if you want to keep going the way you have been with Teal'c, or me and Carter, that's fine, too. You can observe our drills if you have extra time, and if another commander okays it, you can observe other teams, too. Just remember your first priorities are whatever Dr. Rothman assigns you. If you start falling behind there, we'll cut back on these training sessions."

"I understand," Daniel said again, already trying to decide how much time that left. Really, it was only a few hours a week different from what he'd been doing already.

"All right. Final rules," Jack said. "You can't check anything out of the armory on your own, anyway, but don't even try without me or Teal'c. Or Carter, if she wants, but she has duties in the lab--don't bother her if she's busy."

"Okay," he said as Jack returned the Beretta to the armory and walked him back to the archaeology office. "I've been wondering about how this would work. I don't want to be useless or defenseless when I go off-world, but Major Ferretti already told me it's against the law for a fourteen-year-old to carry a gun without special permission. Is that right?"

"Fifteen," Jack said, stepping into the elevator.

"What?"

"I said, you're not fourteen anymore. It's July 8th--that's your birthday on Earth, remember? You're fifteen now."

"Yeah?" Daniel said. "That's good to know." Jack gave him a sideways look but didn't comment.

It seemed like such an arbitrary thing to keep track of, but he supposed it made at least as much sense as marking his age by the solstices. It was still strange to him that every person reached majority or gained age rights at a different day during the year, rather than moving up in responsibilities with the rest of the age set. Of course, there _were_ no defined age sets on Earth.

"I'm still not used to the way people here take notice of days like birthdays one by one, rather than as a group," he commented, relaxing when he had decided that, once they were moving away from the armory, it was 'Jack' again, not 'Colonel O'Neill' or 'sir.'

"Really," Jack said.

"A lot of things here are like that," he explained. "Robert says my perspective is skewed, though, because I've only observed a small subset of Tau'ri culture--of American culture, even, because apparently, the military is a specialized society in itself."

"That's...probably true."

"It's just taken me a long time to get an idea of how SG teams work. It's really very strange to try to figure it out."

"Daniel..."

"No, no, I mean, it's difficult to understand the...you know, the etiquette around here. You can see it most obviously in the way people use first or last names and titles, which is very different around the teams or the civilian researchers, and it's one of the customs that took me a really long time to--"

" _Daniel_ , would you just...take a breath, kid."

Daniel stopped and took a breath. "What?"

Jack stared at him for a second, then rolled his eyes and wordlessly prodded him toward the closed door of the archaeology office.

"Why is the door closed?" Daniel wondered aloud, reaching for his ID, because he and Robert usually left both doors open unless the office was empty. But apparently the door wasn't completely closed after all, because Jack reached past him and pushed it open without needing to swipe or unlock anything.

Which was why Daniel froze with a hand deep in his pocket when several voices called from inside, "Happy birthday!"

"Uh," he said.

"Hi, Daniel!" Cassandra said, waving at him from where she was perched on a somewhat annoyed-looking Robert's desk. "Earth people have this song, and it's really, really funny when Sam sings it. Sam, sing it again," she insisted.

Sam flushed a little and glared at Janet when the doctor disguised a laugh as a cough. "Nuh-uh. Sorry, Daniel," she added to him. "If you want someone to sing you _Happy Birthday_ , Janet can do it. I'm not singing again in public." Teal'c raised an eyebrow and even the general chuckled from where he stood behind Daniel's desk. Robert didn't notice; he seemed to be reading over some report from behind Cassandra.

"Uh," Daniel repeated. Jack snorted and pushed him inside. He stumbled a little and spared a scowl for the man before looking around at the congregation again. "I don't understand."

"It's not that complicated. The anniversary of your birth. And we're celebrating Cassie's, too," Jack added, "since hers is in four days."

"They do this at school, too, so I'm used to it," she told him. "I'm twelve."

"I'm fifteen," he answered automatically, then, "What?"

Smiling, General Hammond told him, "We just wanted to recognize you and Cassandra's first birthday on this planet, son."

"You know four different stories of the origin of Christmas trees, but you've never heard of a birthday party?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Well, no," he started. "I mean, I've heard of...kind of..."

"What's the origin of Christmas trees?" Cassie asked, sliding from her perch.

"Um," Daniel stalled, half of his mind working through 'birthday' while the rest tried to decide which story was most likely to be closest to the true story of the Christmas tree.

"We have to work on that eloquence thing, geek," Robert said, looking up briefly and revealing that he was paying attention, after all.

"No, we don't," Jack said fervently.

Daniel was still a little bewildered--what was the protocol for occasions like this, anyway?--and in the end, Teal'c stepped forward. "I wish you a happy birthday, Daniel Jackson," the Jaffa said, a rare, warm smile on his lips. " _Haru raishen hano'khanmisew_." Daniel couldn't help smiling back.

"What? What did you say?" Jack asked, looking between the two of them as if suspicious they might be sharing a joke.

"A day..." Robert started, frowning in concentration, "to be happy...with, uh..."

"With friends," Daniel finished, looking around the office. "He said, 'it's a day to be happy with friends.'"

"Ah, yes," Jack said, gesturing vaguely with an arm. "Happiness and friendliness. It's a rule we have about birthdays."

"Like the rule about kids having dogs?" Cassie put in, wearing a canny look that said she knew exactly how real that rule was.

"That was _you_ , Colonel?" Janet said. "I should have known."

"Yes," Jack answered both of them, unembarrassed.

Cassie looked up at her mother as Sam gave her a one-armed hug and gestured at Daniel with the other.

"Come on! You're blocking the door."

"Yes, you might disrupt the normally heavy traffic in and out of the archaeology office," Robert remarked dryly.

Jack's arm nudged Daniel, and he stepped fully into the office. "Well...thank you," he said, hoping that was the right sentiment. "And, uh... Happy birthday, Cassie."

"See?" Sam teased. "Our customs aren't so hard."

Another round of 'happy birthday' calls to both of them circulated throughout the room.

"May you defeat many foes," Teal'c added.

"Ah, yeah," Jack said with a wince. "We'll work on those customs. Now, there's pie waiting in the commissary. Who's in?"


	5. Son

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: As always, long stretches of non-English dialogue are italicized. Buckle up, folks--this is where the fun finally starts!

**_16 August 1998; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 2000 hrs_ **

"I could skip it," Jack offered, even though Daniel knew he really couldn't. "Carter'd go along with it. Tell the President 'we saved the world, now we want a vacation.' I haven't seen Abydos in almost a year."

_Exactly a year_ , Daniel thought, but that was in Abydonian years, not Tau'ri ones. Tomorrow, it would be a year. A _whole year_. "You can't skip it, Jack. And you told me once that you hate deserts, so it wouldn't exactly be a vacation."

"Yeah, but I meant deserts on Earth. Abydos is great."

Daniel forced a smile. "Congratulations on the award," he said. "The Air Medal, yes? I was talking to Lieutenant Hagman on Friday, and he explained that it's a great honor, and that you and Sam really deserve--"

"Don't try to change the subject," Jack interrupted. Daniel sighed and stopped talking. "When's the last time you slept?"

He flapped a hand in the vague direction of the air. When Jack raised his eyebrows expectantly, he admitted, "I don't know."

"Have you tried _kelno'reem_ -ing with Teal'c? I'll take you back to the Mountain tonight if it'll help."

"No, I...can't concentrate enough," he said, because he'd tried that last night on his own, and he didn't think it would be much better even with Teal'c's calm, solid presence beside him. "I would only be disturbing Teal'c. You know," he added, "we need to leave very early tomorrow morning if you don't want to miss your airplane to Washington."

"Stop that," Jack said.

"Stop what?"

"You know what."

"No, I--"

"Daniel." Jack waited until he looked up. "Sit down a minute."

Daniel glanced up at a clock. "It's getting late, and didn't you say you never finished your report from P2X--"

"I've still got all night to finish whatever I need to. Now stop trying to wear a hole in my floor and sit down."

Daniel stopped, not having realized until then that he had been pacing. Exhaling slowly, he sank down onto Jack's couch. "I'm fine," he said for what had to have been the fifth time in the last couple of hours.

Jack lowered himself into a seat opposite him and believed him as well as he had the other four times. "I'd be a little worried if you were."

_Better than a lot worried, like you are now,_ Daniel thought, but didn't say it. He fixed his eyes on the window instead.

"Excited?" Jack said.

_Scared anxious overjoyed terrified confused--_ "Yes," he said.

"Second thoughts?"

"Of course not."

"Because--"

" _No_ , Jack. And you're supposed to leave tomorrow at--"

"Will you drop it about the damn plane?" Jack snapped. Daniel shut up. More calmly, Jack asked, "What's on your mind?" Daniel gave him a disbelieving look. "Okay, dumb question. I mean--is there something in particular you're worried about?"

Daniel chewed his lip, then said finally, "A lot of things. What if they don't open the 'gate tomorrow? What if they forgot, or Kasuf thought it was too dangerous? What if the calculations were wrong and they already opened and closed it without us knowing, and I'll never be able to--" He cut himself off, that time.

"Oy. You're making me be the logical one here?" Jack said lightly. "Well, I'm not doing it. Take a step back yourself and think about everything you just said to me."

A moment later, Daniel sighed and conceded, "Tobay is very responsible--he would never forget to tell Kasuf, and Kasuf would never forget about the Stargate. Sam checked the calculations several times, and even if she were wrong, General Hammond let us try dialing Abydos over the last few days with no lock. And Kasuf wouldn't leave the Stargate buried, because he's hoping his children will be coming back."

"And you," Jack reminded him. "You were practically raised with his kids, right? He's waiting for _you_ , too."

"I just...I don't want anything to go wrong. I want to go back and see everything the way it used to be. "

Jack stilled, his fingers unmoving on the arm of his chair and his face pinched. "Daniel, it won't be," he said quietly. "Don't...don't go expecting things to be the same."

"I know. I _know_." Daniel ran his fingertips nervously over the material of the couch. "How do I tell him, Jack? How do I tell Kasuf that I'm safe and well, and his children..."

"You tell him that Skaara and his sister are still alive, and we're still looking for them," Jack said patiently.

"But we don't know if they really are." What could he say-- _'Kasuf, I participated in blowing up a ship when I knew your son was in it a few months ago. Assuming your daughter wasn't there, too, we've narrowed her possible location down to only several thousand planets.'_

"We've been operating based on the assumption that they've both survived and _are_ alive," Jack said. "You tell their father we'll keep looking."

"Yeah." Daniel fidgeted in his seat, then admitted, "I know. I know all this. I went over it with General Hammond, and...and Teal'c, and Major Ferretti, so I know what I'm supposed to say and what I'm supposed to do, but..."

"It'll be fine. SG-2 and Teal'c will make sure nothing happens. Carter and I will join you and relieve SG-2 as soon as we're done with the medal ceremony. And we'll keep people stationed there for the Abydons' safety, too, until this whole thing's settled."

"That's not the point," Daniel said, folding his arms before he could tear apart the seam he had been picking at. "I have to be the one to tell him--I can't... _I_ have to tell him, not strangers from Earth. And then there's the alliance with Nagada to think of, and...and asking him to let me leave. Again."

Jack was watching him closely. "What do you think he'll say?"

Daniel shook his head. "It'll work. Kasuf will recognize the benefits of the SGC's friendship."

"Not the alliance part. What'll he say about you?"

_Naturu, what will he think of me?_ "I suppose I'll find out tomorrow."

"Daniel, if this thing goes through the way we hope, they won't have to bury their 'gate forever," Jack pointed out. "You'll be able to go back and forth between both planets."

But it would never be the same.

Teal'c had visited his wife and son three brief times in more than eight months, and one of those times had been during their escape from the Goa'uld _hatak_. Like Teal'c, if Daniel was staying to help, he had to stay and help, not run home every few weeks. Besides, the Land of Light was a safe place and Teal'c a skilled warrior--the general might not allow Daniel to go to a high risk planet while alone and unprotected, which would restrict trips even more. He suspected his best chances for visiting Abydos would be if some team were sent there for an official reason and brought him along.

Still, he nodded. "My parents would have done everything they could to fight against the Goa'uld. What we're doing can only help my people. And this is what I was raised to do: study different places and people and, and...and learn things. It's what they would have wanted me to do, right?" Daniel chewed his lip and glanced up with a sudden jolt of anxiety when there was no answer. "Right, Jack?"

"They would've wanted you to be happy," Jack said finally. "So do we."

"I think I need to do this," Daniel said. "And there's a place here for me, at the SGC. I know that now."

"Yeah," Jack said. "Okay. And yeah, there is. But tomorrow--you're going home, Daniel. It's not just for SGC business. There are...things you probably want to do while you're there. Take some time for yourself, for whatever you need. Lou would understand."

Daniel thought about the home where he had grown up and wondered what it looked like now, after a year empty of people. "My parents will be at rest there now. My brothers--my friends. I don't even know who...died."

Jack was staring at him when he glanced up. "They would've been so proud of you, kid."

Unexpected tears stung his eyes, and Daniel had to look away again. Sometimes it felt like so long since they'd spoken to him, and so much had changed that he no longer knew what they would have thought of anything. "How...how can you know that?"

Jack was suddenly next to him, not touching, but sitting close. "Because," he said, and somehow, it was enough.

XXXXX

**_17 August 1998; SGC, Earth; Nagada, Abydos; 1100 hrs_ **

" _Chevron seven--locked_ ," Sergeant Harriman announced. " _Wormhole to Abydos established._ "

"Ready?" Ferretti asked.

Daniel nodded, picking nervously at the sleeve of his uniform and fiddling with the strap on his backpack. "Ready."

_"SG-2, Teal'c, Jackson,"_ Colonel Makepeace called to them from the control room, _"you have a go. If you run into any problems before General Hammond and SG-1 return from Washington, you contact me here immediately."_

Daniel walked up the ramp to the shimmering event horizon and stopped with a feeling of mixed anticipation and apprehension churning in his gut. The sound of boots on metal approached from behind him. "We'll go first," Ferretti said. "Then Teal'c, and then Jackson."

"No," Daniel said quickly, putting a hand on Ferretti's arm as he started forward. "I should go first, so they see a familiar face and I can warn them others are coming through. Sir, the MALP didn't show anything wrong," he added when Ferretti started to shake his head. "They'll feel threatened if too many armed people go through at once." He glanced at Teal'c, who seemed reluctant, but inclined his head in understanding and took a step back.

"You and me, then," Ferretti compromised, calling back, "Count to ten, then follow us through."

Daniel shut his eyes briefly, then opened them and determinedly strode into the wormhole--

XXXXX

\--and stepped out into Nagada.

He sucked in an involuntary breath, nearly overwhelmed by the sight of the familiar _chaapa'ai_ room. Torches lit the chamber with fire; not artificial, electric light bulbs, but real, warm flames swaying and dancing in their oil. Dry heat swelled heavily around him.

" _Gods_ ," he breathed shakily, sweeping his gaze around until he caught sight of...

" _Dan'yel? Is that you?_ " Kasuf uttered, surprised relief in his voice, and took a few steps toward them.

The Nagadan dialect of Abydonian floated to Daniel's ears for the first time in a year, and suddenly, he was at a loss for what to say. To cover his momentary disorientation, he stepped to one side. " _Elder Kasuf, this is Major Ferretti. There are four others coming--do not be afraid. They are all friends._ "

As if waiting for that cue, Teal'c stepped through, followed closely by Major Warren and Captains Griff and Casey. The Stargate deactivated behind them.

" _Do not be afraid_ ," Daniel said again, stepping toward Teal'c as he noticed Kasuf's gaze drawn to the Jaffa. He was momentarily grateful that Kasuf hadn't been in that room last year to see Teal'c as First Prime of Apophis. " _They are here to help protect our people. This is Teal'c, my good friend and teacher._ "

" _I am not your enemy,_ " Teal'c added himself, arms spread to show his empty hands. " _I am honored to meet you, Elder._ "

Kasuf glanced apprehensively at Daniel, but nodded in acceptance. " _Then I am also honored to call you 'friend.'_ "

"Major Ferretti, SG-2," Daniel said, switching into English, "this is Elder Kasuf."

In heavily accented English, Kasuf said, to Ferretti, "I thank you to return Dan'yel safe. It is a long time." Then, to Daniel again, " _It has been very long, my child._ "

He opened his arms, and, swallowing hard, Daniel stepped into them, burying his face in Kasuf's shoulder and breathing in the scent of the desert woven into the cloth. " _Too long_ ," he agreed in a whisper.

" _Ay, Dan'yel_ ," the man murmured in his ear, a hand on the back of his head. Even as he tightened his arms around Kasuf, part of Daniel knew that, while people on Earth saw him as a child, here, on Abydos, he truly was not, anymore. The rest of him knew he would always be a child to Kasuf and didn't care about the nearly desperate way he was clinging. " _We feared you would never return, but you come back to us dressed like a man from Earth._ "

" _The tunic I wore when I was taken is too small for me now_ ," Daniel said sheepishly into the man's robe.

" _It was a child's clothing_ ," Kasuf said affectionately. " _You begin to look as your father did when I first saw him all those years ago._ "

Reluctantly, Daniel pulled away, sobering. He stepped back--from the embrace, from the feel of Abydonian linen, from the comfort of Kasuf's steady voice--and lowered himself to one knee. " _I regret that we do not return with Skaara and Sha'uri,"_ he said as calmly as he could. _"We believe they still live. We have not yet been able to find them and bring them back, but we will continue our search until we do._ "

" _What do you mean by 'we?'_ " Kasuf repeated, glancing toward the Tau'ri.

" _Elder, may we go somewhere to speak? I come here as a messenger from Earth, and there is much that I need to discuss with you._ " Daniel tried not to flinch as Kasuf's eyes narrowed and ran over his Tau'ri uniform again, lingering this time on the tactical vest he wore over the desert camouflage and the way he came to his feet in his now-comfortable military-issue boots.

" _We can speak in my dwelling_ ," Kasuf said finally, though a glint of suspicion shone in his eye. The Tau'ri cared a lot about Daniel's education, but Kasuf was proof that a person didn't need schooling to be intelligent. " _But first, come with me. I will take you to the end of our land._ "

Daniel's throat tightened, and he folded his arms while he fought to control his expression. Noticing his sudden tension, Teal'c bent down slightly and said in English, "This makes you uneasy?"

"No," he denied. Then, "I don't know."

"Are we not already at the end of your land?"

"Not exactly. This is the edge of our territory, but that's not what people mean when they say..."

"Then what lies there?" Teal'c asked.

"Not 'what;' 'who,'" he corrected. "That's where we lay our dead to rest." Instead of waiting for Teal'c's answer, he turned around to SG-2. "Major Ferretti, Elder Kasuf would like me to...visit--"

"I heard," Ferretti interrupted quietly. "How far is it?"

"It's just outside the main part of Nagada. A thirty minute walk, perhaps an hour."

"I'll go with you. Warren, hold the fort until you hear from me. Keep your radios on, and make sure you don't shoot any of the natives if they wander by."

"Major," Daniel said delicately, "um...you don't have to go with...I mean..."

"I'll give you privacy when we get there," Ferretti told him, his tone understanding, though he didn't offer to stay away completely. Daniel nodded, then turned back to Kasuf.

"Come," the elder said, and led the way out of the room.

Daniel stepped out with him, Teal'c and Ferretti both on his heels. He blinked and had to squint against the glare of the sun at high noon as he emerged from the _chaapa'ai_ room. The sharp rays beat down like a familiar physical presence, and he couldn't help crouching for a minute to touch the ground and let the hot sand sift through his fingers. How odd it was to be back home at last and not be able to feel the ground under his bare feet or drifting through sandals to tickle his toes. He closed his eyes and had to fight a sudden urge to unlace his boots, stop thinking about enemies and alliances, and just _run_...

"Jac--uh, Daniel?" Ferretti's quiet voice sounded from behind him.

The sand slipped out of his hand. "It's this way, sir," Daniel said, rising and moving across the desert toward the outer limits of Nagada's territory.

They started down a small dune, and Ferretti muffled a curse as he slipped on the shifting sands. Daniel felt his balance adjust automatically and smiled, just a little--his legs still belonged to the desert, no matter what seal was stamped on his boots.

Kasuf hadn't missed the exchange. As Daniel drew nearer, Teal'c and Ferretti keeping a considerate distance behind, the man asked him, " _Was the land very different, on Earth?_ "

" _Yes_ ," Daniel said. He let out a small laugh, because, of all the things that were different, the physical land was the last he would have imagined missing." _Everything was very different._ "

" _And they have treated you well, the ones who rescued you?_ "

" _Yes,_ " he said again, emphatically. " _They have been wonderful. The hero of the Great Rebellion himself has been very good to me,_ " he added, knowing the elder would remember Jack, at least. " _He could not come immediately, because he now being honored by their...their leader. But he will come, along with another friend of mine, as soon as they are finished. They are eager to meet the Abydonian people again._ "

" _You have grown close to them_ ," Kasuf observed shrewdly, a little sadly. " _With your fair skin and hair, and your clothing, and the manner in which you speak of Earth...no one would guess you were born of this world. I almost did not recognize you at first._ "

A pain that had become all too familiar recently stabbed through him. He stared straight ahead. " _I am still Abydon, Elder._ "

A hand cupped the back of his head, and he turned to look into Kasuf's serious eyes. " _And you will always find brothers here,"_ Kasuf said. _"You will always be a son of Abydos, and as a son to me. You will never have cause to doubt your place here._ "

By the man's choice of words, he must at least suspect what Daniel had decided. He had to avert his gaze again. " _Elder, there is something I must ask you. It is about Earth, and what they--what_ we _plan to do against the enemy who has--_ "

" _There will be time for that,_ " Kasuf said firmly. He stepped in front of Daniel, making him stop walking and look at him again. " _You have always been a child of two worlds, Dan'yel Mshai Jackson. But you cannot remain a child forever. Come now and pay your respects to the fallen. Then, we will speak, as one man to another._ "

When they reached the reached the stretch of land outside the walls of the town, though, Daniel's steps slowed. By squinting, he could make out small markers in the distance. He jumped a little when Teal'c's hand found his shoulder and glanced back into the Jaffa's sympathetic eyes set in his expressionless face. Ferretti crossed a final few steps to them.

"Major..."

"Go ahead," Ferretti told him. "Just don't wander out of sight."

Teal'c leaned in a little closer when he didn't move. "My friend, I will accompany you if you wish it, but I do not believe my presence to be appropriate in this place."

Daniel shook his head, saying, "It's not because of...it's just...I'd like to be alone with them for a while." Teal'c inclined his head in understanding. Daniel turned back to the burial ground but felt suddenly as if he were stuck, unable to step forward.

" _Come._ " Kasuf grasped him by the arm, and he lifted his feet one by one and let himself be led away from his friends and toward his fallen family.

This land was sacred to all. The Rebellion was celebrated, it was true, but nothing could wipe away millennia of belief and betrayal of belief without some disorder and ruined foundations that needed to be rebuilt. This place, however, remained revered by all Nagadans, no matter what their varied beliefs were about gods and the _kalach_ and the afterlife in the years since Ra's downfall.

Now Daniel was acutely aware that even the Abydonian word _'kalach'_ was a word borrowed from the Goa'uld, a corruption of a Tau'ri Egyptian word for the life-force that had somehow become associated with the Jaffa concept of the life that followed life. Abydonian beliefs were so entwined with the Goa'uld that truth and lie, genuine history and muddled falsehoods...nothing could be truly separated any longer. Not for the first time, he wished he knew for certain which was real and which only a legend created by a tyrant.

It was one more thing the Goa'uld had to answer for. Sometimes, Daniel thought it was the worst of their crimes.

There was a small piece of land before him, the place marked by a small, flat stone lying at its head. An approximation of 'Claire' and 'Mel' in hieroglyphs, and then the names in Roman letters below, had been carved painstakingly into the stone. Daniel stared at them in confusion--so few people could read that most grave stelae, such as they were, normally bore no words. There was nothing else, though, and he was relieved that no one had tried to inscribe an offering of his parents' _kalach_ to some god who might be nothing more than a parasite, anyway.

Daniel inched forward. " _Who wrote this?_ "

" _Your brothers and sisters of the pen ensured that their names were written into the stone,_ " Kasuf told him. " _They wished to honor their teachers. I thought it fitting, for the people who brought learning back to our world._ " There was a pause, and then, " _Claire and Mel rest together, Dan'yel. They were mourned by all._ "

Daniel had seen people laid to rest, over the years. Burial rites were simple on Abydos--use of sarcophagi and ornate tombs had been lost during Ra's oppressive rule, but some things had been preserved. He had always thought the words spoken over a grave were beautiful, but never before had he been so miserable and yet so relieved to have missed the ritual. Who had spoken the words of power for them? What had they buried with his parents to take into eternity?

Steeling himself, he stepped closer, close enough to reach out and touch the stele if he only bent down. " _Kasuf, could I...?_ "

" _I will wait for you in my dwelling_ ," Kasuf told him. " _When you are ready, lead your friends into the village and find me there--there is something I must show you. Do you remember where it is?_ "

" _Of course._ " He had never gotten lost within the walls of Nagada proper, and he wouldn't now. " _Thank you, Elder._ "

Daniel waited until the sound of Kasuf's sandals on the ground faded, then turned back to the grave and tried to figure out what to do.

There was a moment when he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what language to use, and then he wanted to laugh at himself for worrying about something so stupid when he didn't know that anyone would hear, anyway. If a _kalach_ existed at all, it was in the afterlife, not trapped here beneath barren soil. There were stories, of Anubis and Osiris and Ma'at, but Daniel didn't think anymore that he wanted his parents' _kalach_ in the keeping of beings whom Teal'c knew as despised Goa'uld.

Just in case they were listening, then. People were always telling him that, these days. _Just in case_.

"Hello," he started, coughing uncomfortably. "Uh. I was going to tell you something, but I don't know... Look--Robert says my accent's almost inaudible now. That's a good thing. I think. So..." He rubbed his forehead, feeling stupid, then folded his arms. "I don't...know what to say to you."

At the realization, his eyes began to prickle, and he let himself drop to his knees. "Um, Teal'c says I should learn when to be silent, too, s-so..." He brushed impatiently at a spot of wetness snaking down his cheek and reached out to touch their names in the stone, feeling the care that someone must have taken, and wishing he had been that person. "You don't know who all those people are, of course," he said when he found his voice again. He hated that his parents and this place had been his whole world before, and now the SGC was, and they didn't know each other. "B-because everything has changed. Which is...I mean, that's just th-the way... Gods, I miss you, and I don't know...I don't know."

He tore his eyes from the stone and fumbled with the straps of his backpack until his arms were free, then reached in and dug blindly through it until his fingers found one of his journals. "I took notes about Earth, and the SGC, and my friends, my teachers there." He coughed again and sniffed. "I wish so much that you could meet them, they're really...really. But. So, um...I wrote about th-them, and..."

Daniel bit his lip, scrubbing his jacket sleeve roughly against his eyes. " _Naturu_."

He gave up talking, focusing instead on digging a shallow hole in the dry earth next to the stele with his fingers. Once he'd placed the journal inside, he stared at it for several long moments, because it looked so small and meaningless now, but there was nothing left he could do, even if it didn't matter, and what if it did matter, after all, and it wasn't enough?

But that was all. "I miss you," he said again. "Mama, Papa. I miss you." He kissed his fingertips, pressed them against the cover, and, with a last sigh, swept the earth back over it.

That done, he leaned forward, elbows on his dusty trousers, swallowing back something that caught in his throat. He pressed a fist to his mouth, wishing he had a candle flame to stare into, and tried to reach some sort of calm on his own.

When he could breathe normally again, he sniffed once and said, "There's something...I need to tell you something, okay? I'm going to ask Kasuf to let me stay on Earth and serve the Stargate program. For Skaara and Sha'uri, and what was done to...to you, and...and everything both of our planets have suffered. I know you always said to find the peaceful solution, and you didn't want me to be a f-fighter...and I'm not, exactly, but...but the war came to us first. It's the right thing to do. You understand? Why I have to be part of this fight?"

He found himself irrationally disappointed when no answer came. Not that he was expecting...but. Still.

"I don't know what gods are real, or if you were looking for them," he said. "But...if they are..." He waited. There was no response--no sound or sign from above or below, and not even the dry desert to answer him. He sighed and finished, "If they are, I hope you find them. And..." He searched for some blessing he could say and actually believe and mean it, because, before these of all people, his words had to matter. Finally, he fell back into his native tongue and said, " _May your names live on in our hearts, in eternity._ "

But when he rose to his feet, his heart sank all over again when he realized that there was another grave next to him that looked just as new as his parents', and that he didn't even know whose it was. Next to that were two more.

" _Bolaa rests here_ ," a voice said from behind him, as if reading his thoughts. " _And here, Ide, and there, Mriyu_."

Daniel hastily wiped his eyes again and turned to see a solemn young man standing a few steps away, the knife hanging from his hip and the thick leather band on his left arm betraying his occupation as a Guard of Nagada.

" _I spoke on their behalf at the burial_ ," Tobay said, walking toward him and looking down at Bolaa's grave. " _They died with honor, in defense of our people. Kasuf spoke for your mother and father that night, as well._ " Daniel could only nod, not trusting his voice. Tobay smiled slightly. " _I told Kasuf that you would surely return, brother._ "

" _Tobay,_ " Daniel choked out, then straightened to his full height and extended an arm. Tobay clasped his forearm in his strong grip, but then pulled him close into a tight embrace. Daniel brought his other arm up around and clung to his brother, his mind still numb from renewed mourning. " _It is good to see you again, Tobay._ "

" _I only regret that your return must be darkened by grief._ " Tobay pulled away and held him out at arm's length to run a critical eye over him. " _I almost did not know you, Dan'yel. You have grown tall and strong in your absence._ "

" _Perhaps you have become short and weak_ ," Daniel countered, falling easily back into the familiar banter he had once shared with the boys here.

Tobay laughed delightedly, releasing him with a playful shove. " _Someone needs to remind you of your place,_ little _brother._ "

Daniel found his eyes drawn to the faint stripe of rank that streaked the older boy's wristband. Tobay had worn the mark before, for a time, until Skaara had bested him to claim the position; now, it seemed, Tobay was head of the Guards once again. Daniel fingered the bands around his own arm; he could still see Klorel in his mind's eye and remembered that Skaara no longer wore anything on his arms but a device of torture and Goa'uld ornaments.

His brother's smile faded then, seeing where his gaze rested. " _No one can replace our Skaara, nor would I wish to. But the village must still be protected, now more than ever. I merely hold Skaara's place until his return. Kasuf tells me that you bring news of him_."

" _Yes,_ " Daniel said sobering as well.

" _He is not with you--but he lives?_ "

" _Yes. Skaara and his sister, both. I will tell you, but it is not a simple matter._ "

" _Then we have a surprise for you, for we already know of Sha'uri._ "

Daniel frowned. " _How? What do you mean?_ "

Tobay grinned at him. " _Sha'uri is here. We did not tell her of your arrival--she will be very pleased._ "

...x...

**_17 August 1998; Nagada, Abydos; 1330 hrs_ **

"Teal'c," Daniel called, sprinting back to where his friends stood and ignoring Tobay's confused shouts behind him. "Teal'c!"

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c answered immediately, jogging to meet him, his _zat'nik'tel_ gripped tightly in one hand. Ferretti remained where he was but swung his submachine gun around into his hands. "What has transpired?"

"Daniel?" Ferretti asked, his eyes flicking between Daniel and Tobay's approaching form. "Who is this?"

"He's a friend," Daniel said quickly, before the major could start pointing a weapon at the head of Nagada's security forces. "But he says Sha'uri is here, on Abydos."

Teal'c stiffened. Ferretti's gaze snapped toward the main part of the village, as if he could see the woman through the surrounding wall. "That's the woman who was snaked?"

"Yes. Yes, sir."

" _Dan'yel,_ " Tobay called, catching up to them. He sounded at once annoyed and confused. " _What is it?_ "

" _Sha'uri is here?_ " Daniel demanded urgently.

" _Yes, with her father. Has something happened?_ "

" _How long as she been here?_ "

" _More than a season_ ," Tobay said.

Teal'c's eyes narrowed, and Ferretti said, "Will someone tell me what the hell's going on?"

" _And she has not seemed...different to you, Tobay?_ " Daniel said.

" _No, by the gods! What has come over you, Dan'yel?_ "

Daniel averted his eyes, then raised them again resolutely. " _You must believe me. Whoever is in Elder Kasuf's house is not Sha'uri._ "

"Jackson!" Ferretti snapped.

"We have to get her away, Major--everyone here is in danger," Daniel said anxiously, running toward the gates to the town. His movement was cut short in a frustrated growl when Teal'c stopped him with a single arm around his chest and dragged him back. "Teal'c, let go--"

"Major Ferretti," Teal'c said, ignoring Daniel. "The Goa'uld woman is within, but the Abydonian people have not noticed any unusual behavior."

" _Tobay,_ " Daniel said as he saw his brother eye Teal'c's restraining arm and start to reach for a knife. " _No, don't!_ Teal'c, stop, let go, I'll stop, okay?" He pulled against the Jaffa's grasp until he was released, then turned back to Tobay. " _Sha'uri and Skaara have both been taken by Goa'uld. Demons, like Ra was, like the demon that attacked Nagada and took us away! Sha'uri is being controlled by one of them._ "

Wariness still lingered in Tobay's expression and his stance. " _How can that be? She has been here among us for two cycles of the Eye of Thoth. And what could she possibly do while she is with child?_ "

Daniel choked. " _With...child? How...but, who...?_ "

His brother shook his head. " _She will not speak his name._ "

Feeling suddenly ill, Daniel repeated to his companions, "We have to go to her."

"You're not going anywhere near a Goa'uld, kid," Ferretti said flatly. "Stay out here."

"Don't call me--" Daniel started, then said, "You'll find her on your own, then? You don't even know where she is or what she looks like!"

"You could ask your friend to lead the way."

"Or I could _not_."

"I will make that an order, Jackson!"

"I don't care!" Daniel snarled back. "Tobay says she hasn't done anything wrong. Major, please--she's with child. I won't do anything dangerous, but I have to see her and find out."

Ferretti looked taken aback, then snapped, "Don't get between her and our weapons. Teal'c?"

Teal'c stepped forward and took up a place beside Daniel without further prompting, not holding him this time, though his stance said he was ready to do so at any second. Daniel gritted his teeth but didn't argue, instead nodding to Tobay and leading the way through the wooden gate and into Nagada proper. He didn't have to look back to know they were all following.

Ferretti's voice reached his ears, along with the static of his radio. "Heads up, boys--Goa'uld in town. She's pinned down in here, and we suspect she won't be in any condition to do much to us, but hold your position, stay the hell awake, and alert the SGC. If we don't check in after thirty minutes--"

" _Dan'yel_ ," Tobay said, alarmed, ripping Daniel's attention away from Ferretti. Daniel looked at him, remembering then that Tobay could understand some English, too, but didn't slow his pace. " _You are mistaken--you must be. You cannot lead these soldiers from Earth to harm your own sister._ "

" _I saw her attack Skaara with my own eyes, brother_ ," Daniel said.

Tobay snapped him to a halt, authority sharp in his voice. " _And I have seen her do nothing wrong for two cycles with my own eyes,_ brother _!_ "

Daniel was pulled to a stop, and he looked instinctively to Teal'c for help. There were in the town now, with Nagadans watching excitedly and warily all around them, a few beginning to crowd their path. He thought he heard his own name whispered a few times, but he had eyes only for the suspicious confusion reflecting back at him from Teal'c's stony face.

" _If she is indeed inhabited by a Goa'uld, then all of your people are in danger,_ " Teal'c said, appealing to Tobay's duty of guarding the village. " _But we have no wish to harm Sha'uri unless we are forced to do so._ "

"Yes. Major Ferretti," Daniel added, "don't raise your weapon to her until we hear her out."

"Excuse you, Jackson?" Ferretti said incredulously.

"Please. Uh, sir," he amended, wincing. "If anything goes wrong, she's alone and you'll have plenty of time to... Just. Please. She might be just a victim. An innocent, pregnant woman," he added.

Eventually, Ferretti nodded grudgingly, warning, "One wrong move, and I shoot first, got it?"

"Understood," Daniel agreed quickly. He took a sideways look at Ferretti's position so that he'd know whether the man had an open shot in the case that someone made a wrong move.

Tobay understood their brief exchange easily enough to hear the concession as well as the threat, and he removed his hand from Daniel's arm to take the lead himself. Perhaps recognizing him as a Guard, the townspeople cleared the way to let them through at the sight of his determined stride. Daniel quickened his pace to match his brother's.

" _You surprise me, Dan'yel_ ," Tobay commented to him as they neared Kasuf's home. " _If I were not sure that you would refuse, I might ask you to join the Guards._ "

Daniel wasn't sure if that was a compliment or a rebuke. There was no good way to answer, and he didn't try.

Finally, they approached Kasuf's home. Kasuf and Sha'uri's home, it should have been, until Sha'uri married into another man's house, but...well. How many things actually went as they should?

Kasuf was waiting when they stepped through the entrance. " _Have you finished--_ "

" _Forgive me, Kasuf,_ " Tobay interrupted. " _Dan'yel brings disquieting news about your daughter._ "

Before he could answer, though, Sha'uri (Sha'uri, gods, he had almost forgotten how radiantly beautiful his sister was) appeared behind him. " _Father, I--Dan'yel!_ "

Teal'c shifted almost imperceptibly next to him, his _zat'nik'tel_ rising a few inches. Daniel placed a quelling hand on his arm, reasoning mentally that that didn't technically count as getting between Sha'uri and a weapon, so he wasn't really disobeying Ferretti's orders.

"Sha'uri?" Daniel said hopefully. His eyes were drawn immediately to her belly, and he wasn't Dr. Janet Fraiser of Earth or the physician Sainu of Nagada, but he was sure there couldn't be very much time left before the baby came.

"Beware, _chal'ti_ ," Teal'c murmured beside him. "I sense the Goa'uld within her still."

Sha'uri looked shocked, her lips falling open slightly and not making any moves toward them, threatening or otherwise. " _He told me you were dead,_ " she whispered. " _I had not hoped to see you again._ "

Kasuf frowned at that. " _What do you say, daughter? Who could have told you such a thing?_ "

" _Kasuf,_ " Daniel said, " _the last time I saw Sha'uri, she had been taken by a demon of great power and evil. She was not who she appeared to be._ "

" _He speaks the truth, Father,_ " Sha'uri said, lowering her eyes.

" _What?_ " Kasuf said.

" _There is a demon called Amaunet within me, but she sleeps now._ " Her breath hitched, and she turned away from them. " _If she did not, the child I carry would be stillborn_."

Kasuf's mouth worked soundlessly. Daniel turned to Teal'c to ask, "Is that true? The Goa'uld can't take control of the host when she's with child?" Ferretti's eyebrows rose as he struggled to follow the conversation.

"I have never known a Goa'uld to father a human child," Teal'c said, not really answering, sounding unsure himself. "It is forbidden."

"But... _Amaunet is the Mother Who Is Father. Perhaps there is no father, then?"_ Daniel said hopefully.

Kasuf's eyes widened, and Sha'uri shied from her father's look of horror as he realized the truth before Daniel did. " _No. Apophis...is the father,_ " she admitted, a tear escaping. " _They have stolen my womb as well as my soul._ " Tobay's jaw tightened.

"Jackson?" Ferretti prompted when a pause stretched too long.

"Apophis has..." He faltered, not knowing the English word for the atrocity that had been done to his sister. "She has been... Sha'uri carries Apophis's child."

Ferretti's hands shifted uncomfortably on his weapon, but, to Teal'c and Daniel, he said, "Listen, that's gotta mean Apophis is here somewhere."

Sha'uri answered directly for herself, her English accented but smooth and confident, just as Daniel remembered. "Apophis is not here. He has hidden me away, to hide me from his enemy." At their looks of suspicion, she said, "My mind is filled with images...the Goa'uld's knowledge, memories. That is how I know that you, Jaffa, are the _shol'va_ Teal'c. Apophis survived your assault on his ships, but his place among the System Lords is no more. He blames the _shol'va_ for that, and the Tau'ri."

Teal'c's carefully neutral expression gained a hint of pride.

Daniel, however, was still caught on the fact that Apophis had survived the assault. That meant... "And Ska--and Klorel? He survived as well? Can you be certain?"

She turned a pitying gaze on him, and he had to fight not to look away. "Skaara still lives, and the Goa'uld within him. He escaped with Apophis, and soon after, I learned of your death at his hand, Dan'yel. At least, that was what he believed."

Alive. _Alive_. 'Alive' meant he could be saved. And to save them...

"Thor's Hammer," Daniel said, turning wide-eyed to Teal'c. "If..."

"It was destroyed," Teal'c reminded him quietly.

"But perhaps Thor left something else there," he insisted. "We have to do _something_ , Teal'c, while we have the chance!"

"What is this hammer?" Sha'uri said.

Daniel glanced at Ferretti, who said, "Ma'am, your Goa'uld's...sleeping now, right?"

"Yes," Sha'uri promised. "She does not listen now."

Before anyone could voice further suspicions, Daniel said, "There's a technology that can remove a Goa'uld from its host. It's on a planet called Cimmeria. It...it's broken, but that means there is a way. If we can go to that place and...and try to contact the people who built it..."

But she shook her head. "I think not," she said. "Cimmeria?"

"You have heard of this place," Teal'c said.

Still looking scared--of Apophis or of his enemies or of them, Daniel couldn't tell--but not backing down, Sha'uri said, "There is one called Heru-ur who has built a stronghold for himself on a planet where no other Goa'uld has dared to go in millennia: Cimmeria. Apophis and the other System Lords fear the strength he has built there, that he somehow defeated what all Goa'uld have feared for so long."

Uh-oh.

"A Goa'uld...must have found out that Thor's Hammer was destroyed," Daniel said.

"Heru-ur is no ordinary Goa'uld," Teal'c put in. "He is a powerful System Lord--a conqueror and a destroyer. His armies are feared even among the Goa'uld."

Sha'uri nodded. "Apophis believes Heru-ur will come for his queen and his heir. That is why he left me here." She hesitated, then admitted, "I did not know his reasons in the first days, when Amaunet was only beginning to loosen her hold, but when I realized...I knew of nothing I could do. I believed you dead, that the Tau'ri would never return. There are few who dare to fight the Goa'uld."

Daniel took a step forward. When no one pulled him back, he took another. "And you...you are truly...?" He reached out a hand and lightly touched her shoulder; Sha'uri stood still and let him. The tingling sensation of a Goa'uld's naquadah was there, so faint that he would never have noticed without looking for it. But there, still.

" _I am your sister again_ ," Sha'uri told him, sounding a little desperate for someone to believe her. She gently grasped his hand and placed it on the bump of her stomach instead. " _It is I, Dan'yel, Skaara's sister--your sister. Until the child comes._ "

" _The child..._ " Something stirred under his fingers, and he drew back with a sharp intake of breath. " _And then? What will happen to the child?_ "

Sha'uri's cool fingertips reached up to brush his hair off his forehead fondly. Daniel closed his eyes and tried to imprint the feel of her touch into his memory, because when the child came, he would lose it again. " _Apophis wishes for a son who can one day become his new host._ "

Tobay shook his head in fierce denial. " _We will not allow them to take your child._ "

She looked away. " _He will destroy you for trying,_ " she said, but held a protective arm around her stomach.

" _We will save your child,_ " Daniel argued. " _We can protect..._ " He trailed off and turned to Ferretti. "Major, if we bring Sha'uri back to the SGC--"

"She said her mind was filled with Goa'uld knowledge," Ferretti said, looking thoughtful. "That could help us a hell of a lot."

Images of his sister being interrogated flashed through his mind. "No. No, that's not what I..."

"Amaunet will return soon," Teal'c interrupted. "When she does, we can protect Sha'uri and the child, but we must first return with her to the SGC."

"It'll take the danger away from Abydos, too," Ferretti added.

Gods. And when Amaunet awoke...but she would be safe. That was something. If she was with them, they could protect her. "Sha'uri," Daniel said, "will you come with us?"

"The demon within me will return," she said.

"Yeah, we'd have to keep you locked up then, ma'am," Ferretti said, "but at least we'll keep you safe from Apophis and the other Goa'uld. And...uh, we'd figure out a way to protect the baby, too. Maybe even find a way to get the Goa'uld out of you."

Sha'uri glanced once at her father, then at Daniel, hope warring with apprehension in her eyes. "I understand," she told the major. "I will go with you." Her expression hardened. "There is much I can tell you of the Goa'uld while I am free of Amaunet's mind."

"Okay. Wait here a sec," Ferretti told them, reaching up to his radio and stepping back out of the dwelling. "I'll send my team home ahead of us to alert Makepeace of a change in plans."

Once he'd left, Sha'uri shrank a little again, losing the steel in her gaze. She lowered her face and whispered, " _Forgive me?_ "

" _Daughter_ ," Kasuf said, looking somewhere between pained and stunned, but when she leaned into him, he didn't hesitate to wrap her in his arms.

" _I have brought such evil to our people. I am so ashamed--_ "

Surprisingly, it was Teal'c who answered her. " _Only Apophis is to blame. Sha'uri is not at fault for being a slave to him and his kind._ "

" _This...Apophis will be angry when he returns for her,_ " Kasuf said, his voice solemn. " _He will destroy the village if she is gone._ "

" _That is part of what I wished to tell you, Elder,_ " Daniel told him. " _There is no time now if we want to keep Sha'uri safe, but the Tau'ri--the people of Earth--wish to band together with Abydos against the Goa'uld. If you will allow it, some men will remain here to keep Nagada safe until there is time for you to speak freely with our--with their leader._ "

" _They are a trustworthy people,_ " Teal'c added. " _With Apophis weakened and expecting no resistance, the Tau'ri can strike here and now and defeat him. Elder Kasuf, tell him that his enemies stole away Sha'uri and the child._ "

But Sha'uri was shaking her head, thinking through the scenario. " _He may not believe you._ "

" _The deception will be only a distraction. The Tau'ri can be waiting_ ," Teal'c countered, his voice intense as he glimpsed a chance to defeat his old master. " _And when he comes, we can destroy him._ "

" _We will fight him as well,_ " Tobay put in. " _If nothing else, we can drive him from our home._ "

Kasuf nodded in acceptance. " _Then go with them, daughter. We will tell no one the truth of where you have gone._ "

Ferretti came back in. "Everyone ready?"

"One more thing, Major," Daniel said. "General Hammond said a security force would stay here until we know what's going to happen between Earth and Abydos. Now that Apophis is certain to come back, and soon..."

"Warren talked to the SGC through the MALP. Hammond's back from Washington. Makepeace and SG-3 are trying to scrounge up extra men to be stationed here for a while, a large enough force to make Apophis think twice. I sent my team home ahead of us, and they'll explain the situation. Daniel will take Sha'uri back, and O'Neill and Carter are coming through soon--we'll meet up with them in the 'gate room, and they'll help assess the situation."

"They're back from Washington already?" Daniel checked his watch automatically, knowing they hadn't expected to return this soon.

"Look, details later," Ferretti said in a tone that would allow no argument. "We have to get back ASAP, and it'll take us longer with...you know." He jerked his head toward Sha'uri.

Shaking himself, Daniel nodded, then told the others, " _I will take Sha'uri to Earth through the chaapa'ai. Sha'uri, I will be nearby the whole time you are there_."

Tobay frowned and leaned forward. " _Dan'yel, you are not remaining here, in Nagada?_ "

Daniel opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. He had planned a list of explanations, but there was no time now, not when Apophis could be here any day now. " _Tobay, I..._ "

" _Go, with my blessing_ ," Kasuf said, making both of them look at him in surprise. " _Help them protect my daughter. We will speak again soon. Do not allow them to forget your people, Dan'yel._ "

"Jackson, we've gotta go," Ferretti said impatiently.

"Yes, sir," he answered automatically, then bowed to the man who was--had been--like a second father to him as well as his leader. " _As you say, Elder. Sha'uri?_ "

Ferretti nodded to Teal'c to go first, then Daniel and Sha'uri, taking the back position in their procession himself. The sound of footsteps reached them from behind, and Tobay drew level with Daniel. " _I will escort you to the chaapa'ai,_ " he said, then, without another word, jogged forward ahead of Teal'c.

They were almost at the entrance to the Stargate room when Sha'uri gasped and stumbled heavily into Daniel. Ferretti was at their side in a second, calling, "Teal'c!" The Jaffa turned back to them immediately.

" _Ay, my brother_ ," she breathed.

" _What?_ " Daniel said. He tightened his arm around her and, as he glanced down, saw a trickle of liquid running down her leg. " _What...Sha'uri?_ "

She grabbed his shoulder in an unrelenting grip. " _The baby comes!_ "

Oh no. "Ferretti! Major, the baby is coming," Daniel said, starting to panic, trying to help hold up his sister, but unsure whether he was supposed to let her lie down or make her walk to get into the room as fast as possible or _what_ , because how was he supposed to know what to do with a woman beginning the birthing labors? "Sir, wh-what do I do?" he asked frantically.

"Shit," Ferretti muttered. "I sent my medic home. Hurry, just get her inside."

" _It is too soon_ ," Sha'uri whispered, then grimaced. " _It is..._ "

Her eyes glowed suddenly, making them flinch in surprise. "My lord comes for me!" Amaunet cried gleefully.

" _No, Sha'uri, you can fight this,_ " Daniel urged, not at all thinking about the way Skaara and Sam had both struggled futilely and failed against the Goa'uld within them. " _Just a little longer!_ "

Tobay was at their side, too. " _Sha'uri, you are almost there. A few more steps._ "

Teal'c glanced upward. "A Goa'uld ship approaches." The rest of them looked up in alarm at the speck that was rapidly growing larger. "They seek Amaunet."

"Not...not me," Sha'uri said weakly, her voice her own this time. "They seek the child."

"The child?" Daniel asked as he pulled her urgently toward the Stargate. "Why?"

A gasp shuddered through her body. "He is...Harsesis."

"Harsesis?" he echoed.

"The forbidden child," Sha'uri said. She squeezed his arm. "He knows too much."

_What? Too much what? What could a baby know?_

"We don't have time for this," Ferretti growled. "Teal'c, help me get her inside. Jackson, you know how to use the DHD? Know the address for Earth?"

"Yes, sir," Daniel said, remembering the times his parents had tried to reach other planets from Abydos and the times he'd watched SG personnel do the same. "I'll start dialing." He stepped away, and Tobay took his place, helping them assist Sha'uri toward the 'gate room.

Daniel ran inside, and his hand had just hit the glyph of Auriga when an unfamiliar sound from above made him look up to where the ceiling was...

...opening?

He turned, only to see the others already coming inside. "Major Ferretti, something's happening--"

"Shit--Jackson, they're rings! Everyone out!" Ferretti called, but too late--the rings dropped.

A man-- _Goa'uld, it's a Goa'uld_ \--materialized within the rings, surrounded by Jaffa guards. Daniel was barely able to see a falcon tattoo on their foreheads before the rings disappeared, and the Jaffa opened fire.

Falcon sign. Horus Guards. It was just like the stories told of Ra's servants, but this wasn't Ra, not anymore; this must be Heru-ur--

Tobay dove for one of the guns still hidden around the room. Daniel had time to pull his sister away from Ferretti as the major reached for his weapon, but then some unseen force ripped him away from her and slammed him into a pillar behind.

Dazed, Daniel forced himself up onto his hands and knees. "Sha'uri?" he gasped, wincing.

Ferretti was yelling something, and Daniel heard gunfire and Teal'c's _zat'nik'tel_ , dwarfed by the sound of firing staff weapons. He flinched and ducked aside as Tobay's form came crashing into the wall next to him, the gun falling from his hands.

"No," Daniel breathed. "No _..._ " He crawled toward Tobay, grasping a shoulder and pulling him onto his back urgently, but there was no wound.

Only then did he look up to see Heru-ur standing behind several Jaffa, his hand encased in the gleaming _djera'kesh_ that had thrown Daniel and Tobay aside. Ferretti ducked a staff blast and shifted his gun to aim for the Goa'uld.

A shimmering field appeared around Heru-ur. The stream of bullets fell uselessly at his feet.

Ferretti lowered his weapon a few inches in disbelief and had no time to move before he was tossed headfirst into the back wall, slumping to the ground.

The Horus Guards turned their attention to Teal'c, who dove away and crouched behind a pillar.

Tobay groaned and looked up, shaking his head dazedly. " _Dan'yel...?_ "

" _Tobay! Did you see Sha'uri? Where is she?_ " Daniel asked, squinting through the chaos.

The Stargate began to turn.

Incoming wormhole.

Heru-ur whirled, the Horus Guards moving immediately to surround him. Taking advantage of the distraction, Teal'c moved out from behind his cover and neatly felled three of the remaining eight Jaffa before having to duck back again to avoid return fire.

Jack and Sam stepped out of the Stargate.

"What the hell!" Jack blurted in surprise, and then they leapt apart to dodge staff blasts and fire back.

A scream split the air as two more Horus Guards fell. " _Sha'uri!_ " Tobay called, struggling to rise as they caught sight of Sha'uri collapsed on the ground, panting in pain, one hand on her stomach and the other splayed against the wall. Heru-ur's eyes flashed and fixed on her as well.

Daniel pulled himself desperately upright, a step behind Tobay, but Heru-ur reached Sha'uri first and dragged her roughly to her feet. A staff blast blew past Daniel's face, close enough for him to flinch from the searing heat against his skin. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a Horus Guard raising his weapon at Tobay.

Instinctively, he grabbed the back of Tobay's robe and yanked his brother toward himself as hard as he could. Still unsteady from the concussive force of the _djera'kesh_ , both of them staggered and fell backward as the blast flew safely over their heads.

Two more sharp reports of gunfire sounded, and then the only sound was a moan. _Sha'uri!_ Daniel and Tobay untangled themselves from each other just as the activation of the ring platform caught their attention. Light streamed from the ceiling onto Heru-ur and Sha'uri, and rings dropped around them.

Daniel thought distantly that he'd always wished to see what the rings looked like, but not like this.

"Ah, crap!" Jack's voice said, but Daniel didn't turn to look at him, entranced by the sight of his sister disappearing with the Goa'uld in a beam of white.

Teal'c rushed past them and to the entrance, returning moments later to report, "Heru-ur's ship is leaving."

"No," Daniel breathed, scrambling to his feet and running to see for himself. By the time he looked into the sky, the _hatak_ was nowhere to be seen. "No, no, _yi shay!_ " He kicked viciously at the stone of the doorway, spinning angrily away when a hand pulled him back.

"Jesus, Daniel, take it easy--" Jack started.

" _Arik kek te, Goa'uld!_ " he yelled futilely into the empty desert. " _Ha'taaka orak! Ona--_ "

" _Kree, chal'ti!_ " Teal'c barked. " _Kal shak!_ "

Fuming and breathing hard against the pressure clenching at his throat, Daniel slammed a furious hand against the stone but obeyed and shut his mouth. He turned away from the dunes to slump against the wall and felt himself slide down to the sand, shaking from reaction and rubbing a sleeve across his dusty face.

"Okay," Jack said, sounding somewhat winded and very stunned. " _What_...just happened?"

"Major Ferretti!" Sam called, stepping around the dead Jaffa toward the fallen man. Daniel's gaze followed her, belatedly remembering his temporary CO hitting the wall, and he levered himself to his feet to stumble toward them. Sam pressed her fingers to the side of Ferretti's neck, looking anxious, but he stirred and coughed.

"Ferretti," Jack said, striding toward him as well as Daniel crouched at his side. "Lou, hey, look at me."

"...Jack? Aw, shit," the major groaned, his words slurring. He turned away as Sam's fingers explored his head. "I got no damn luck in this room. _Ow_ , Carter! S'fine."

"Concussion," Sam said. "We should get him back to Dr. Fraiser."

Jack looked over the rest of them. He bent over Daniel, brushing a careful thumb over his cheek. Daniel flinched at the unexpected sting, but Jack nodded briskly, looking relieved. "You got caught in the heat of a staff blast," he told Daniel. "No worse than a sunburn." He set a hand on Daniel's shoulder, paused, and then turned to face Tobay instead."You're the one I talked to last time. Tobay?"

Tobay nodded, straightening fully. "O'Neill."

"Okay," Jack said again. "Someone really needs to explain to me what the hell just--"

The Stargate began to turn again.

"Now what?" Jack said, exasperated. "That'd better be SG-3."

"It may be Apophis," Teal'c said. "We must cover ourselves."

" _Hide, Tobay,_ " Daniel added in Abydonian, just in case something got lost in translation.

Sam helped Ferretti stumble to a hiding place. Daniel found himself hauled to his feet and separated from his brother, Teal'c's hand on his head forcing him to duck low and Jack's arm pressing him against the wall. He squirmed between them until he could look out to see what was happening.

He couldn't help a shiver as Apophis and his Guards strode through the Abydos Stargate for the second time in as many years. Daniel watched anxiously, almost expecting to see Skaara appear, too, but the 'gate deactivated behind the last Serpent Guard.

Apophis stopped short at the sight of the bodies littering the floor. " _Jaffa_ ," he ordered, pointing.

A Serpent Guard stepped forward and flipped over one of the bodies. " _Horus Guard,_ " he responded in Goa'uld. " _Heru-ur was here, my lord_."

There was a movement at the other end of the Stargate room. Daniel started at the sight of Tobay standing there and began to rise, only to be jerked back, Jack's hand clamped hard over his mouth.

" _Human! Where is my queen?_ " Apophis demanded in bastardized Egyptian. The Serpent Guards' staff weapons all primed at once.

Tobay licked his lips nervously and said, " _We were attacked by Heru-ur. He took Sha--your queen with him into the sky._ "

" _And my child?_ "

" _And...your child, as well._ "

" _Who killed these Jaffa?_ "

" _My men and I,_ " Tobay lied. When Apophis's eyes narrowed suspiciously, no doubt having seen the marks from Tau'ri weaponry, Tobay pointed to the hidden guns and lied, " _There were many, many more. These were the only ones we were able to kill before they...attacked our village._ "

The Goa'uld's eyes flashed and his face darkened in anger. " _Then let that be the punishment for your people's weakness. Return and tell your leaders that this is the fate of those who oppose the Goa'uld._ "

Tobay bowed. Daniel was glad he wasn't the one speaking to Apophis, or he would have been unable to stop himself from pointing out that Apophis was severely weakened and must be bluffing, and that _he_ wasn't the one who'd won the battle today, after all.

" _Kree, Jaffa!_ " The Serpent Guards snapped to attention and dialed some unseen address, their bodies blocking the DHD from view.

Then, finally, they were gone and the Stargate was silent again.

Daniel pried Jack's fingers away from his face and crawled from his hiding place, seeing the rest of them do the same. He and Tobay stared at each other for a long moment before he said, " _Thank you for deceiving Apophis._ "

" _We Abydons despise the demons more than these Tau'ri ever could,_ " Tobay answered. He hesitated, then said, " _You are leaving us again?_ "

" _No,_ " Daniel said quickly, but then amended, " _Yes. But not forever. I can help the Tau'ri, and they can help Abydos._ "

Tobay's eyes fixed momentarily on Jack, who was listening to Teal'c's low voice as the Jaffa translated. " _Nagada would be lost if not for them. I see why you choose to join them. My place is here, but fight beside them, my brother. Bring Skaara and Sha'uri back to us._ "

He extended an arm, as if to an equal. Daniel stepped forward and grasped it without hesitation.

"Tobay," Jack said, "we will contact Abydos, very soon. We need to get some of our people back"--he glanced at Ferretti, who was leaning heavily against a pillar--"but others will come within...oh, the next half-hour."

"I tell Kasuf of this. My men meet your men," Tobay replied, then dipped his head and left the Stargate room at a jog.

"Now..." Jack started, then glanced suspiciously at the Stargate as if expecting it to activate again. When it stayed quiescent, he walked away from it and toward the opposite end of the room, where Sam was peering at Ferretti's eyes. " _Now_ , someone tell me what the hell happened here. Lou? You still with us?"

His mind whirring, Daniel backed quietly away from where SG-1 and Major Ferretti were gathered.

Sha'uri had said that Heru-ur's stronghold was in Cimmeria. With no other Goa'uld daring to venture there, and the Cimmerians unprepared to resist Goa'uld rule after millennia of protection from Thor's Hammer, there was no other place he might have taken her to give birth to her... _Harsesis_ child, whatever that meant. That was where his sister and her baby would be.

And Thor...

Surely Thor had left more on Cimmeria than just a single device. There had to be something else, some other weapon, some way to contact him and his race. Cimmeria was their best chance to find help. Their _only_ chance, perhaps.

"...that's what your team told us before we came through..." Jack's voice floated to his ears as they continued the impromptu debriefing.

Daniel considered SG-1, remembering the report of their previous, less-than-successful trip to Cimmeria. Sam had said the people were welcoming, but perhaps they would be less so, now that SG-1's actions had allowed a Goa'uld to take control there.

But Daniel hadn't been involved the last time. And Abydos was, or at least had been, in the same place as Cimmeria, oppressed by a false god. His sister was prisoner along with the Cimmerians. He would make them understand and find help among the people there. Daniel had told Kasuf that Sha'uri would be safe, and now she and her baby were captives unless someone did something.

He might be able to convince SG-1 to go, out of a sense of duty to the Cimmerians, but Jack would never let Daniel go with them to a Goa'uld-controlled planet, if he asked.

_If he asked._

Daniel stared at the DHD, recalling the address for Cimmeria that he had memorized and then seen so many times in reports that he'd read over and over that the glyphs were seared into his mind.

"Jack," he called over his shoulder, "I'm going to start dialing home. Earth," he amended, because 'dial home' was an expression they all used, but it felt strange to say, standing on Abydonian soil and moving away.

Jack glanced at him. "Fine. We'll be there in a minute. Wait for us before you leave."

"I know," he lied, taking off his backpack and letting his hand hover over the first glyph. "I think my GDO was damaged in the fight, anyway."

_Scutum, Lynx, Andromeda, Equuleus, Libra, Cetus...Abydos point of origin..._

He slammed his hand on the DHD crystal. As Daniel watched the stable wormhole to form, a thought struck him, and he stripped off his vest and jacket, pulling off the survival knife he carried and laying it on the ground as well. He couldn't walk into this armed. He couldn't walk into it as anything other than a man from a land of former slaves asking for help. He stared at the event horizon and walked up the steps toward it, steeling himself.

From behind him, Teal'c yelled, "Daniel Jackson!" Daniel took a deep breath and ran through to Cimmeria.


	6. Thor's Might, Part I

**_17 August 1998; Nagada, Abydos; 1500 hrs_ **

"That's what your team told us before we came through," Jack said to Teal'c and Ferretti, trying to piece together the bits of information he didn't have, because clearly those missing bits were pretty big. "Warren said you'd found Sha'uri here, so we knew she was pregnant and Daniel was supposed to be bringing her back. We _didn't_ know that we were going to walk into a firefight."

"Neither did we expect that Apophis would come so soon," Teal'c said. "Nor that Heru-ur would discover that Amaunet was hidden here on Abydos."

_Heru-who and what?_ Jack looked to Carter to make sure he wasn't the only one confused. "Ah...those names aren't ringing any bells, so..."

"No bells are present, O'Neill," Teal'c told him.

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. He wasn't in the mood for this. "Who did we just fight, Teal'c?"

Teal'c lifted his head, raising an eyebrow in understanding, and said, "The Goa'uld Amaunet, the mate of Apophis, is the one that inhabits Sha'uri. Apophis brought her here to hide her. Heru-ur is the one who kidnapped her and her child minutes ago. It was likely an attempt to ascend among the ranks of the System Lords."

Of course. Because dealing with _human_ politics wasn't enough. "Why? Just for a baby Goa'uld? What are we dealing with here, Klorel the second?"

"No," Teal'c said flatly. "The child she carries is human. Sha'uri called it the 'Harsesis' and the 'forbidden child'. She indicated that there was some knowledge that he possesses."

Carter raised her eyebrows, clearly coming up with some theory already. "Would the baby have Goa'uld genetic material, or human? Because there's the genetic memory to consider."

Teal'c blinked. "I am uncertain. Perhaps the Harsesis child would possess the knowledge of his Goa'uld parentage, and it is for that reason that it is forbidden."

"Peachy," Jack sighed. He looked over his shoulder, where Daniel was studying the DHD.

As if sensing his gaze, Daniel turned and called, "Jack, I'm going to start dialing home. Earth."

With a final look around the room, Jack nodded and called back, "Fine. We'll be there in a minute. Wait for us before you leave."

"I know. I think my GDO was damaged in the fight, anyway."

To the rest of his group, Jack asked, "Ready, kids?"

"Wait--wait a minute. How did Apophis know he could come through the Stargate?" Carter spoke up as the DHD sounded behind them.

"Because...that's how Stargates work," Jack said, knowing that was somehow the wrong answer but not knowing why.

"But it was blocked until today, sir." Ah. That was why. "And if he left Sha'uri here before, it must've been by ship, and he'd've seen that the 'gate was buried until today: _exactly_ today."

"What are you saying, Carter?" Jack said, though he knew.

She shook her head. "This is just too much coincidence--someone must've tipped him off. Sir, we need...to step carefully next time we come here, until we know exactly what's going on. That's all I'm saying."

Jack opened his mouth to answer.

"Daniel Jackson!" Teal'c yelled suddenly, making Ferretti groan and Jack whirl in time to see Daniel disappear through the wormhole.

"What the--"

Teal'c brushed past them and had already reached the DHD by the time Jack could pass Ferretti to Carter. The Jaffa made as if to follow Daniel through, but the Stargate inactivated just as he reached the ring. "The address was for Cimmeria," Teal'c told them, stepping over a discarded vest, backpack, and a sheathed bayonet--they must be Daniel's; what the hell?--and starting to punch in the address again.

"Wait, whoa, _what_?" Jack asked incredulously. "Cimmeria? The...Thor place?"

"Without Thor's Hammer," Teal'c said stiffly, "Heru-ur has taken control of the planet. It is likely that Amaunet has been taken there. If the Harsesis child is what Sha'uri believes it to be, we cannot allow it to fall into the Goa'uld's hands."

"So he decided to go alone to a Goa'uld planet?" Jack said, furious and horror-struck at once. "Empty-handed? On _purpose_?"

Teal'c fixed him with a sharp gaze as he finished dialing and hit the crystal. "You would not have permitted him to go if he had asked you, O'Neill."

"No, dammit, I would not, and he knows that perfectly well for a perfectly good reason!" He exhaled hard. SG-1 had to follow him now, which was, of course, what Daniel would have been banking on in the first place.

That _idiot_.

"If it is Thor's race he seeks, he may be an asset to us," Teal'c said. Jack started to shoot back an angry response when the Jaffa continued, "But it was unwise to proceed alone, so I will follow while Major Ferretti is returned to Earth." Without waiting, Teal'c pulled his zat and ran through the wormhole while Jack wondered why he wore birds on his shoulders at all if no one was going to listen to him, anyway.

"Don' worry 'bout me, sir," Ferretti slurred, wincing. "I c'n make it on my own. Go yell at Daniel f'r me."

"I'll send the major home and then follow you, sir," Carter amended, so Jack nodded and sped through after Teal'c before the wormhole could close.

XXXXX

**_17 August 1998; Cimmeria; 1505 hrs_ **

The first thing Jack saw when he got through the 'gate was a Cimmerian man standing with a raised battleaxe, while Teal'c stood with his zat primed. Daniel had planted himself between them with a hand out to the Cimmerian and the other on Teal'c's fist as if trying--unsuccessfully--to push the zat down. He looked smaller than he was, terrifyingly unprotected next to the very large and armed men surrounding him.

"Teal'c, don't shoot--" Daniel was saying, then turned his head and said to the Cimmerian, "Please, if you would hear me out--"

Jack stepped forward and called, "Everyone just--hey, watch what you're doing with that thing!" he added as the man's attention--and his weapon--turned to him instead.

"Stop! Please!" Daniel cried. He flinched and took half a step back as the man turned back his way but held his ground. Giving up on moving Teal'c's arm and holding both hands up to the Cimmerian, he stepped to the side to block Teal'c's weapon and show off even better how utterly helpless (and utterly _senseless_ ) he was. "We know you have been plagued by a Goa--a great evil, and these people can rid you of the Ettin."

"Daniel..."

"Jack, calm down--"

"Calm _down_?"

"Lower your weapon. _Please_. We don't want to fight the Cimmerians," he emphasized with a pointed look at the man waving an axe at him and Teal'c. "We have to help them against the Ettin."

Jack ground his teeth together, but the fact was that there were sharp and heavy objects waving at his friends, and one of them had chosen today to become too stupid to move the hell away, so he pointed his gun at the ground instead.

The Cimmerian was not so accommodating. "These are the people who brought Thor's wrath upon us," he growled. "Thor has abandoned us to the Ettins because of them!"

A more familiar figure stepped out, and Jack cautiously relaxed a little to see the Cimmerian spokeswoman, Gairwyn, looking somewhat more wary and bedraggled than last year but every bit as sharp, this time holding a broadsword in her hand. "If they did not intend to help us, Olaf, why would they return at all?" she reasoned.

"To help the Ettin," Olaf suggested with a scowl. "Perhaps they come from the Ettin's world."

"No, no, no," Daniel protested, not dropping his open hands but lowering his head in her direction in a way that made the hair on Jack's neck rise in alarm. He knew better than to take his eyes off a potential adversary, which meant it was a deliberate gesture. "They are from Midgard, and--"

"The ancient home!" Gairwyn exclaimed, looking at them more seriously. "Then they are our brothers."

"What matter is it where they are from, woman?" Olaf countered, then spat on the ground. "Dogs! They are trying to make us lower our guard. It is only another of their games."

Gairwyn cast an almost gentle eye over Daniel. "And you, child? Why did you come to a place where such darkness has taken hold?"

"I am not from your ancient home," Daniel told her, letting his Abydonian accent grow thicker as he spoke, widening his eyes innocently and spreading his arms to make his dust-streaked T-shirt clearly visible against Jack and Teal'c's camo and weaponry. "I am from another world that the people from Midgard have defended from...from three different Ettins. My sister and her baby have been stolen by the Ettin who controls Cimmeria. I knew that there could be no one better than these people to help your world fight back. Please--I only ask that you let them help you the way they saved my people."

_Sneaky_. Not that Jack was going to complain right now.

Not that he _wouldn't_ have a few strong words to say later.

"Perhaps we should hear them out, Olaf," Gairwyn agreed. "What choice have we left?"

"The Ettin's hold is too strong here," Olaf said grudgingly, his eyes shifting around the open area warily. "In the beginning, we were able to evade the patrols and strike back at the invaders, but we have lost too many men that way--it has become a futile task. Even remaining here for too long is dangerous, now that Thor has abandoned us."

Daniel nodded. "They have told me about Thor"--he grimaced as Olaf glared at Jack again--"and we don't think he has truly abandoned you. He could not know that Mjolnir was destroyed, or I'm sure he would come to your aid. If you have a way to speak with him, perhaps we can help you to make contact with him."

The Stargate activated again, and Jack hurried away from the ring to avoid the _kawoosh_. "One of ours," he told them, though he kept his MP5 aimed toward the wormhole until Carter stumbled out. Sensing his presence, she turned and raised her gun in his direction as well, then quickly dropped it.

"Sir," she reported. "I sent Ferretti back home to fill in the general and tell SG-3 to hurry up and get to Abydos."

"Good work, Captain," he said, seeing with relief that the locals were lowering their weapons.

"Gairwyn," Carter greeted a little warily, but the Cimmerian leader nodded back to her without rancor.

"The Ettin never leaves the ring unguarded for long," Gairwyn told them. "Hurry, before his armies find us."

With a nod from Gairwyn, Olaf led the way away from the main road and into thicker brush that offered some measure of concealment. It also offered some pollen, apparently--Daniel walked face-first into a bush and sneezed as SG-1 followed.

"Bless," Jack whispered automatically, thinking that all they needed was to be discovered because of a sneeze, and wasn't this just the best way to discover that someone had allergies when he wasn't breathing filtered, underground air? Daniel muffled another sneeze, pushing away a stray branch, but didn't answer. Jack stopped suddenly, his attention caught by something in the distance. "Whoa."

If they had had any doubts that there was a Goa'uld here, the gleaming pyramids left no room for question. Teal'c followed his gaze and told them, "They are landing pedestals for Goa'uld motherships. Heru-ur's _hatak_ will use one of them for its landing site when he arrives."

"Which will be...?" Jack prompted.

"Soon," was all Teal'c said.

Carter caught up to Jack and said in a low voice, "Heru-ur just left Abydos by ship, sir. Even pushing a hyperdrive to its limits, I estimate at least an hour to get here, and he must have taken some of his Jaffa with him from here to there. But when he gets back, we can expect a lot more company."

"Good to know," Jack answered in a low whisper. "Keep your eyes open."

"Sir," she said, lowering her voice even further. "Have they mentioned the Hammer?"

Jack exhaled. "Oh yeah. Not happy."

"So, how..."

"Because Daniel's a sneaky little _\--_ " he broke off before he raised his voice too much. Daniel twitched, showing he'd heard, but didn't answer. Jack stepped in close to him and hissed, "I can't believe you walked onto a Goa'uld world alone, without telling us, without even any protective gear!"

"They wouldn't have welcomed us any other way," Daniel dared to whisper back.

"Yeah, funny thing about that _'us'_ part," Jack shot back. Daniel winced and crossed his arms. With the terror of his disappearance still fresh, Jack warned, "There's gonna be a long talk waiting for you at home, Daniel. I'm speaking as your commanding officer, not your friend."

Daniel dropped his gaze and shut up, looking almost sick. Jack let himself feel bad for a second before remembering that-- _oh right_ \--he'd just dragged them all onto a Goa'uld world.

Sha'uri was personal for him. Compromised judgment was understandable on account of that, but this was _crazy_. Jack had to know if this was the kind of thing the SGC would be seeing from Daniel all the time. No one had gotten killed because of it this time--so far--but if it went on this way, one day, he'd end up in the middle of something he couldn't bullshit his way through.

The path they were taking was indirect, but that was smart, given the circumstances. The Cimmerians had clearly been taking care to hide their passing each time they came through, which must be why Heru-ur and his Jaffa hadn't found the caves they were creeping into now.

The caves were nothing more than a few passageways feeding into larger areas that had been minimally stacked with living supplies. Cimmerians huddled together against the walls, looking up as they passed. Most of these people weren't warriors like Olaf and Gairwyn, willing and ready to strike at the enemy from within; they were civilians, scared and trying to hide under the enemy's noses.

"Sweet," Jack said lightly, looking around. "Love what you've done with the place. The stone really goes well with...stone."

Carter shot him the sideways glance that meant she would be saying a lot more if she weren't so careful about respecting rank out loud.

Teal'c was surveying the place critically, too. "It is well concealed," he approved. "But is there no way to escape if the entrance is discovered?"

"No," Olaf said, a hint of threat lacing his words. "And so the entrance must not be discovered. These paths"--he pointed away from the direction they'd come--"lead to where the Ettin has set his camp and begun building his strength. They must not know we are here."

"Good plan," Jack said. "Speaking of plans...how do we blow the Horus Heads to hell?"

"Horus _Guards_ ," Daniel muttered.

"I was going for the alliteration," Jack retorted.

Daniel's gave him a look that asked if he was crazy, which, Jack thought, was pretty rich.

"I'm not sure we can, sir," Carter said. "We didn't bring full gear. It was supposed to be just a short trip to Abydos to help set up a trap for Apophis and bring Sha'uri back to the SGC." Teal'c only had his zat gun and now opened a pack that contained basic emergency supplies but not much else that would be useful. Daniel, of course, was empty-handed now that he'd left his gear back on Abydos, but honestly, he'd probably only brought a few personal journals and things in the first place--nothing that could help here.

"Yeah, I don't have much, either," Jack admitted, sifting through his own pack. "I don't suppose you any more of those pocket-sized naquadah bombs or anything, Carter?"

She didn't acknowledge the joke. "Just some first-aid things and minimum weapons, sir. I managed to grab a few claymores and several blocks of C-4 when I went back to SGC, but not enough to take out someone who's established himself here already. It'll make some noise, but that's it."

"We have to find Thor, then," Daniel said.

"Look, Daniel," Jack said impatiently, "we went over this months ago. I'm all for mythology, but I think we have to admit--"

" _Mid'cha_ \--listen to me, please!" Daniel interrupted. "If the Cimmerians have a way to contact Thor, or the people of Asgard, we have to try it. Otherwise," he added viciously, "Cimmeria will be lost, because of what you did to the Hammer. You _owe_ it to them, Jack, and this is the only way, unless you think you can kill Heru-ur with a land mine when bullets can't even touch him!"

"Daniel!" Carter rebuked, taken aback. Daniel flushed and gulped but didn't take it back.

It was all right for her, of course. She'd stood around at the 'gate last time while Jack and Teal'c had destroyed this world's only defense against the Goa'uld. Anyway, when Daniel was in this mood, Teal'c was the only one he might possibly obey, and Jack noticed Teal'c wasn't telling him to _shut up and behave, chal'ti,_ which probably meant the guilt trip was working just fine on the Jaffa, too.

Jack peered closer at Daniel in the dim lighting and noticed, now they were standing still for the first time since meeting up on Abydos, that he could see faint tear smudges in the shadows.

He'd known from the start that going back to Abydos wasn't going to be clean and easy, even without meeting a Goa'uld or three. And since that had been Daniel's very pregnant sister being kidnapped while they were being shot at, and considering that Daniel had actually attacked a wall back there and spouted something in Goa'uld at Heru-ur that sounded very impolite, Jack made an effort to keep his tone calm as he pointed out, "I think you're a little too close to this to be objective."

" _I_ think we're running out of time," Daniel retorted swiftly, his voice steady but strained, hints of panic lacing the words. "If you want a _strategic reason_ ," he said, biting off the words, "Heru-ur is about to gain a child that Sha'uri says knows...something...some secret that the Goa'uld want. We can't let that happen, Jack."

' _My sister and her baby_ ,' he'd said earlier. 'Objective' was barely in sight anymore.

On the other hand, that didn't mean he wasn't right.

So Jack simply reminded him, "We're going to have a _long_ talk later," and caught a glimpse of his chagrined expression before turning to ask Gairwyn about Thor.

"Perhaps we can gain access to the Hall of Thor's Might," she said. "The ancient tales tell of a hall in which Thor placed all of his powers to help us, to defend us."

"Powers, as in weapons?" Carter asked, sounding interested. "We could use the firepower, sir, especially if it's some alien technology as advanced as Thor's Hammer was."

"If we are to seek this Hall, we should begin immediately," Teal'c said. "It will not be long before Heru-ur returns."

Gairwyn nodded. "I will take you there. But we will have to leave the safety of this place."

Nodding, Jack started, "In that case, Daniel will--"

"Jack," Daniel broke in. " _Jack_. Please."

As much as Jack hated to admit it, he was pretty sure Daniel had taught himself a lot of crap about Thor that might come in handy if they were seeking some mythical mighty hall. Also, Jack was pretty sure no one had brought enough rope to tie him up and leave him in the cave, and that was obviously the only way he'd be staying behind unless they could get Olaf to sit on him, which didn't sound very safe, either.

"Yeah. Okay," Jack allowed. He turned away before he had to watch Daniel's shoulders slump in relief. "C'mon. Let's move."

Without being asked, Teal'c placed himself to walk behind Daniel, Jack taking point with Gairwyn and Carter bringing up the rear. As they went, he whispered over his shoulder, "You're sure Sha'uri and the baby are coming here?"

"They must be," Daniel said confidently. "There's nowhere else Heru-ur would bring my brother."

"Your...?" Jack glanced back. He'd learned early on that 'brother' didn't mean the same thing to Abydons as it did to them; it was apparently the only word they had for close family or friends, and while he knew blood wasn't always the most important thing...well, sometimes it was just healthier not to think of Goa'uld spawn as family. "Brother?"

"Or sister. The baby." Daniel lifted his chin. "Sha'uri's child will be kin to me, as well. And I promised Kasuf that his daughter would be safe. Perhaps I couldn't do that, but I will not give up the chance to right my mistakes. Or, at least, to save the baby."

Oh, hell. "Daniel, what happened wasn't your faul--"

"I _promised_ , Jack," he insisted.

"Tobay's supposed to keep the whole village safe, and Ferretti didn't complete his mission. So they failed, too, huh?"

Daniel went red, though it was hard to tell whether it was from anger, embarrassment, or shame. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Then--" He cut off that line of thought and asked instead, "And this harsi-kid--"

" _Harsesis_ ," Daniel snapped back, scowling again.

"--knows some secret that the Goa'uld want?" Letting something like that fall into enemy hands...

As if he knew a little of what Jack was thinking, Daniel made a sound of frustration and hissed, "First Ferretti wants to interrogate Sha'uri, and now you're actually going to use a newborn baby as, what, a...a weapon? A bargaining chip? Jack--"

Jack snapped his head around. "Dammit, Daniel!" he whispered as loudly as he dared. "You think I'd do that to someone's kid?"

Daniel dropped his gaze even before Teal'c growled something at him. "No, I mean...Jack, I didn't--"

"Here it is," Gairwyn announced, casting a look between the two of them.

Jack stared another second, then tore his eyes from Daniel and looked up at the stone column in the wood. "Well, great," he said, less than pleased at yet another obstacle in a quest that was quickly beginning to look hopeless. "Another obelisk."

Daniel raised a confused look to Jack, then looked away as well and didn't try to resume the argument in favor of focusing totally on the pillar before them. "Not really," he said. "True obelisks are shaped like pyramids at the top, by association with the sun, just like the pyramids of Egypt. This is more like a...a stele, but without any writing. And the symbol at the top is associated with Thor's Hammer, obviously."

"Obviously," Jack said dryly. "So how do we get to the Hall of Might from here?"

"This is it," Gairwyn told him.

Carter came forward to examine it as well. "I don't see anything that could be a weapon," she conceded finally, sounding disheartened.

"Or a hall," Jack observed. He let a breath hiss out through his teeth, trying to think of how best to use their small supply of explosives and weaponry, if Thor was a bust. "Well, we gave this thing a shot. Now, Gairwyn, if we can get all of your people to the Stargate, we can try to hold off the Jaffa until you guys evacuate to somewhere safe. To Midgard, even--that's your original home planet, right? At least temporarily."

Daniel gave him an alarmed look and began to trace his fingers over the stone column, as if looking for a hidden mechanism of some kind. "Hold on; last time you saw something like this, it took you and Teal'c to Thor's Hammer," he suggested, a little desperately. "Maybe this can take us somewhere else, too."

Gairwyn looked anxiously up the length of the obelisk. Stele. Thing. "It is forbidden to touch the stone," she said, pointing.

"Oh. Okay," Daniel said in relief, and touched the stone.

Jack sighed in resignation as a light came down to beam them all away.

XXXXX

**_17 August 1998; Hall of Thor's Might, Cimmeria; 1600 hrs_ **

It was dark.

Scuffling sounds echoed as people stumbled to find their footing, and he heard a muffled, "Ow," from Carter just before Teal'c turned on his Maglite. Jack followed suit, quickly scanning the area as Carter found her flashlight as well.

"Daniel," Jack said once he was sure that everyone was there and that no one trying to kill them just yet, "do we actually need a rule about touching things off-world that are... _forbidden_?"

"Um..." Daniel gestured around them. "But at least we found a hall. This could be it."

"Okay," Jack conceded, looking around as well. "But I'm still not getting the 'mighty' vibe." Even calling it a 'hall' was being pretty generous; it was more like an empty cave, bigger than the one the Cimmerians had been hiding in, but not much better in décor.

Carter shifted uneasily. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this." Her light passed over something at the end of the hall, and she stopped, tracking back to the spot to point at another, smaller stone pillar. "What's that?"

A familiar Viking warrior appeared.

"Ah," Jack said, gesturing toward it. "Everyone, this is Thor."

"Wow. It's a...an image, you said?" Daniel asked. "A recorded image?"

"Like an answering machine," Jack said.

And then the image started to speak. "I am Thor. You are brave to come before me."

Gairwyn lowered herself to one knee. "O mighty Thor--we need your help."

"It's only a hologram," Carter told her, urging her up. "He can't hear you."

"However," Thor went on, "only the worthy may witness Thor's might." Gairwyn raised her eyebrows and rose slowly again.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Jack muttered. "Just get to the part where you tell us we're worthy and show us your stuff." Thor ignored him and disappeared. Jack looked around, but the hologram was definitely completely gone again. "Or not," he sighed.

"That was truly only an image?" Gairwyn said. "He has not forsaken us?"

"Just a holographic recording, probably projected through that hole there," Carter confirmed, pointing up at something on the ceiling. "Although I really wish it had given us a little more information."

"Perhaps we must prove ourselves worthy," Teal'c suggested, standing stiffly where he'd landed when they'd been brought to the Hall of Might. Jack couldn't blame him; the last time something like this had happened to him, he'd almost had Junior ripped out.

"How?" Gairwyn asked.

Daniel looked around the mostly-empty hall and pointed at the only thing in the hall with them--the stone where Thor's image had been projected. "Maybe he's testing us. It has to have something to do with that stone over there."

Jack began approaching it cautiously. "Carter, want to take a look at this thing?"

Before she could, however, the ground began to shake.

"Thor is angry!" Gairwyn cried, stumbling back. "I should not have doubted him--he is preparing to strike us down!"

"No, he's, uh...not," Carter said, although Jack noticed she was looking around worriedly for an exit.

"Teal'c," Jack said, bracing himself against the tremors. "Remember how we got out of Thor's Hammer? That stone thing over there's gotta mean something."

Understanding, Teal'c raised his zat gun, aiming for the stone where Thor's hologram had been standing moments before. Remembering how Goa'uld technology didn't always work in Thor's places, Jack raised his gun as well.

"Wait, wait!" Daniel called. "Don't--I think this is part of the test."

Not seeing anything to suggest that himself, Jack didn't drop his weapon, but he paused, holding a hand up to Teal'c as well and hoping this was one of Daniel's moments of being very right instead of horribly wrong.

"It's stopping, sir," Carter said a second later. Sure enough, the ground stopped shaking--and then it fell away in front of them, leaving a gaping chasm between them and the other side of the Hall.

"What was that supposed to be a test _of_?" Jack said. "Our balance?"

"Actually, sir," Carter said, pointing at a narrow beam that crossed the chasm, "that sounds about right."

Jack walked cautiously to the edge, testing the ground under his feet as he went, then looked down.

And down.

Stepping back again, he eyed the thin strip of stone connecting both sides. "We have to walk across that?" He didn't wait for an answer, since it was pretty obvious they had to get to the other side, and it looked like walking across the beam was the only way. "This ledge is pretty thin. You think it's gonna hold our weight?"

"I don't think it's regular stone," Carter said. "We don't even know what it's made of." A familiar gleam of interest entered her eye.

"Captain, mineral check later," Jack warned.

"Of course, sir," she said quickly. "The point is, this must be part of their technology, and they could probably devise something that would hold a lot of weight."

"It's very _old_ technology," Jack pointed out, "which hasn't seen any maintenance in...a long time."

She grimaced. "We should go one by one," she agreed. "Less weight at any given time."

Also, though she didn't say it, going one by one meant that, if one fell, the others wouldn't be taken down as well.

Jack did a last, quick visual search of the Hall for another way out, then eyed the people with him. "Fine. Carter, Gairwyn, one of you go first. You're the lightest ones--less likely to break it. Daniel next, and then me, then Teal'c. No dawdling, but don't rush and fall off, either, 'cause it looks like a long way to fall. I hope no one here is afraid of heights."

A shuffling sound came from somewhere beside him, and he turned to see Daniel inch forward and peek over the edge, then blanch and back away.

_So much for that_ , Jack thought.

"I should attempt to cross first, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "If the bridge is able to support my weight, you will know it is safe."

"And if it doesn't, you're gonna end up"--Jack checked the abyss again--"a long way down. And we'll be stuck here, too."

"If any person is forced to remain on this side, another strategy would have to be devised. I am not familiar with the race of Thor or their technology." And Carter was, he meant, or, at least, she'd be most likely to figure it out. They couldn't afford to find out the bridge wasn't safe by letting her fall through, and Gairwyn was basically an innocent bystander they couldn't use for a trial run.

"I think it'll hold, sir," Carter offered.

Jack nodded, trusting her judgment. "Teal'c?"

Unsurprisingly, the Jaffa had near-perfect balance. It didn't mean he had anywhere near perfect sense, though, because he stopped dead in the middle of the beam and stayed there for a few, long seconds, as if testing it. "Teal'c, what the hell are you doing? Move it!" Finally, Teal'c continued on and effortlessly reached the other side.

"The bridge appears to be safe, Captain Carter," Teal'c said, waiting for her to go next.

"We had to cross worse than this in basic training," Carter said bracingly, walking to the edge of the chasm and placing a foot on the beam.

_Not without a net,_ Jack thought.

She glared at the beam. "Thank you, sir."

Jack winced apologetically. "Did I say that out loud?"

Despite whatever misgivings she might have had, however, she made it across with little trouble. "Gairwyn, come on," she said encouragingly.

Gairwyn went more slowly and with what looked like a lot more trepidation, but, other than a few doubts before starting, she sucked it up and crossed over, as well.

"You're up, Daniel," Jack said. When Daniel hesitated with a foot on the beam, breathing a little too fast, Jack lowered his voice and added, "C'mon, you're not gonna let a couple of women show us up, are you?" He hoped Carter hadn't heard that, because that woman might kick his ass for it, superior officer or not.

"If you knew my mother, you know that's not going to work," Daniel said. Still, boyish pride won out over logic, and he lifted his chin determinedly as he stepped out onto the beam, looking unsure whether he should keep his eyes on his feet or on the other side.

"That's it," Jack said as he began to make his way across with decent balance after all, despite the clumsiness that came with gangly teenaged legs.

Just as the words left his mouth, the ground shook. Daniel crouched down to grab onto the beam with his hands, staring down into the depths of the chasm. "No, don't stop, Daniel," Carter said urgently. "Keep coming, just slide across."

"Daniel, don't look down, there's nothing there," Jack said, inching toward the beam himself.

"I know, Jack--that's not helping," Daniel said between gritted teeth.

"Look at Sam, you can make it."

The ground bucked again, and Daniel gasped as a foot slipped off, hugging the beam tightly with both arms. " _Ay_ ," he blurted. "Jack..."

"You're fine, that's it," Jack encouraged anxiously, watching Daniel begin moving again, not bothering to let go with his hands and stand upright as he crawled quickly across. "Keep going, you're doing gr--"

A yelp sounded as another, stronger tremor rippled through.

"Okay, okay, don't worry," Jack ordered, making the decision and starting across as fast as he could without falling himself. "I gotcha, just hang on and I'll--"

The beam--not the whole ground, he could see now, but just the beam--shook violently enough to dislodge his footing. Jack sprang toward Daniel to hook a desperate arm under his just as the beam fell away beneath them...

They landed about an inch lower than they'd started.

Jack blinked, his ears ringing with the cries of their teammates. He unwrapped his hands from Daniel's trembling, frozen form.

"Sir!"

"O'Neill! Daniel Jackson!"

"We're okay," Jack assured them.

"Thor's Might had better be _really_ mighty," Daniel said shakily, slowly peeling himself away to come to his feet.

Carter tested the now-solid ground with a foot before rushing toward them, Teal'c approaching as well from behind her. "What was that all about?"

Thor's image flickered into life again.

"You again," Jack said, annoyed with the damn Viking now. What the hell kind of stupid test was that?

"You have shown true selflessness and bravery," the hologram told them. "Willingness to sacrifice oneself to save others is an honorable trait--I salute you. Now you must add wisdom to courage. Solve the riddle of the runes and I will show you my true might."

"That's amazing," Carter commented as Thor disappeared again, leaving them alone in the empty room. "I wonder how he knew what happened. There must be some sort of really advanced sensors if this whole system is automated."

Jack glanced at his watch, wondering how fast Heru-ur's ship would get there, or if it had already landed. "Right now, we need to let Thor sense some more worthiness, which isn't going to happen if we stand around here, so, ready or not..." He took a step toward the hologram platform and palmed the stone himself this time, sucking in a breath when the room disappeared in a sea of white light.

The next room was mostly empty, too, but--

"Runes," Daniel said.

"And...doodles," Jack added, gesturing at the other two walls.

Carter stepped in for a closer look. "So, basic geometric shapes on one wall, pictures--pictographs?--on another, and runes on the third. Those look like the writing we saw on the obelisk in front of the Stargate, the one that took Teal'c and the colonel to Thor's Hammer."

"It's the same runic writing system," Daniel confirmed. "People on Earth call it Old Futhark. Dr. Barr recognized it."

"Please tell me _you_ do, too," she said.

"I don't know if it spells out a word, and if it did, I probably might not know it, either, because Thor's people might speak something different from even Earth's Vikings, which I don't know much about anyway, but I've been studying the meanings of _individual_ runes, and their phonetic valu--"

"Daniel," Jack said.

He squinted at the runes. "Um. _Thurisaz_ , _pertho_ , _al_ \--"

"No, what do they mean?"

Daniel took a breath. " _Thurisaz_ can represent...something to do with Thor. His enemies--that means the giants, which were probably the Goa'uld, but it can also represent Thor's Hammer. _Pertho_..." He grimaced, thinking. "Luck? Or...Dr. Barr's dictionaries say that it can mean a lot of things, and that people aren't sure. I don't...I'm sorry, I'm not familiar enough with..."

"Move on, then," Carter encouraged. "What's the third one?"

" _Algiz_ \--that's protection, specifically from Thor. And _hagalaz_ can have to do with hail--or metaphorical hail, like projectiles in a battle."

Jack glanced at Gairwyn who shrugged helplessly. "We do not know the language of the gods."

"Fine," Jack said, unhappy at the thought of wasting time playing with riddles. "But what does it _mean_?"

"I don't..." Daniel tilted his head. "A lot of it has something to do with Thor, or protection, or the Goa'uld, so that could be a reference to whatever Thor does or uses to...uh, to protect Cimmeria against the Goa'uld."

Jack gave him an exasperated look. "Y'think?"

"I don't know! That's all I can figure out from this, Jack. If I had a little more time, maybe--"

A voice broke in. "There is no shame," Thor's hologram said. "Perhaps in more time, you will have come of age."

"No, no, wait," Daniel told it frantically. "Wait! Just give me a minute!"

Thor's image froze. A collective sigh whooshed through the chamber.

"Okay," Carter said, "let's all calm down and think about this rationally. Daniel, are you sure those are the only meanings of those runes?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, not at all; that's the problem. Every rune has many different meanings, and depending on the time period and context, they can function as phonetic units as well as...as ideographs, or as numbers, or--"

"Numbers?" she interrupted, perking up as a familiar thinking line appeared between her brows. "I can work with that--let's try it. What are these?"

At some point, she had moved toward the wall, and the two of them were now frowning at it together, the rest the team apparently banished from mind. Jack didn't speak, knowing that this was their last shot and knowing from experience that interrupting only ever served to break his astrophysicist's concentration. There wasn't much he could do with Norse squiggles, anyway, but if she was going to anchor Daniel as he churned out the information they needed, Jack could at least shut up and let them go at it.

It was a weird feeling.

Daniel took a calming breath. "Okay," he started. " _Thurisaz_ is the...third. Three. _Pertho_ "--he stopped to count--"is thir--no, fourteen, and _algiz_ is fifteen. _Hagalaz_...um, nine. Three, fourteen, fifteen, nine." He turned to her expectantly.

Carter chewed her lip in thought. "It's not any common sequence or pattern I can see. Three...um, how about...three, one-four, one-five...nine!" she suddenly exclaimed. "Pi! Three point one four one five nine. It's the first six digits of pi."

Daniel's head whipped to the other wall where the geometric shapes were. "Pi? Like with circles?" he asked her, stepping toward it.

"Yeah," she said, following him to look more closely herself, "but what _about_ the circle?"

Jack twitched when Daniel started reaching his hand toward the shapes on the wall. "Aht! Don't touch--"

Too late, because Daniel's finger had already brushed something on the wall. "It's okay, Jack. The inside of the circle is soft--I think we're supposed to do this. Sam, pi is...what should I..."

"Think, Daniel," she said. "The circumference of the circle is drawn out for us. Pi is the ratio of the circumference to...what? Remember, we went over this--"

Jack was about to remind her that this was _not the time for a geometry lesson, Captain,_ when Daniel reached up again and drew a line through the circle, splitting it neatly in half. Jack tensed, expecting the ceiling to fall on their heads or some trap to spring out of the walls and skewer them where they stood, but the shape only melted away to reveal another forbidden stone behind it.

Daniel grinned delightedly and, without prompting, cupped a hand around it.

A little green man appeared.

Well, he was grey, really.

"What...the...?" Carter murmured in astonishment.

But _holy crap_ \--a little grey man.

"I am the actual one whom you know as Thor," the little grey man said, not seeming to be bothered by their curious crowding. "I am the supreme commander of the Asgard fleet. In the ten-span since I created this world, you are the first to reach this level of contact. You have finally grown wise enough to see me in my true form."

"How is this..." Carter walked up to the hologram to study it from a few inches away. "It looks just like the descriptions from Earth about alien abductions and Roswell Greys."

"Earth?" Thor replied directly, making her startle and back away. "The Asgard have long studied the humans of Earth." Daniel cocked his head at those words, a speculative look coming over his face.

"Did you just answer me?" Carter asked, leaning in close and then backing away again. "This is a...a live communication device of some sort?"

Thor's overlarge head tilted to the side, his own big eyes tracking her movements. "The image you see is a living transmission. I am communicating to you from my quarters aboard the Asgard ship Biliskner."

"See?" Daniel said triumphantly. "I told you we could find the real Thor."

"Thor, buddy," Jack said to the little grey man, because there really was nothing else to do when confronted with the hologram of an alien several times smarter than he was, "you gotta help us out. A Goa'uld called Heru-ur is on his way here."

"Impossible. Cimmeria is a safe world, protected by the Asgard," Thor told them confidently.

"Ah...ye-eah," Jack replied. Thor's large eyes narrowed slightly. Jack grimaced. "Right. So. This is...a little awkward."


	7. Thor's Might, Part II

**_17 August 1998; Cimmeria; 1700 hrs_ **

"And so...that's what happened to the Hammer," Jack finished, wondering how a little grey man who stood about as high as his navel could make him want to fidget like a guilty cadet. "That's why we were _really_ hoping you had some weapons. Or something that could help us out."

"There are no weapons hidden here," Thor told him, somehow managing to make his alien stare look surprised. "The tests were designed to tell us when the Cimmerians were advanced enough to see us as we really are. We did not anticipate outside interference."

Jack couldn't tell if he was more displeased about the Hammer or about the 'outside influence' thing. He actually couldn't tell the alien was displeased, since his voice changed tone as much as Teal'c's and betrayed his thoughts even less, but he thought 'displeased' was a good guess. "We weren't trying to interfere," Jack said, "but there's a Goa'uld on your world, and someone had to do something about it since you weren't around."

Of course, there wouldn't have been a Goa'uld there without their interference. Jack had a feeling the little grey Asgard knew that perfectly well, too.

"We know you know of us," Daniel added earnestly. "You said you've visited Earth before, and I know you've been to a planet called Hanka and probably many others"--Jack traded a startled look with Carter at that but didn't comment--"so wherever we're from, doesn't it please you to know that humans have--"

Thor disappeared.

"No, wait!" Daniel said again, and then they were beamed back into the forest.

There were Horus Guards waiting when they landed.

"Hey," Jack blurted.

Several helmeted heads swung toward him, and he immediately took the first down with a few quick bullets at point-blank range. "Cover!" he ordered without looking around, dropping one more while Teal'c's zat and Carter's gun sounded around him without hesitation.

Then it was silent.

Six Jaffa, he counted with a thrill of relief. If they hadn't had surprise on their side...

Carter turned to scan the forest around them, and Teal'c moved to shadow her. Daniel had crouched behind the stone leading to the Hall of Might to stay out of their way, and Gairwyn...

Where _was_ she, anyway?

"Clear, sir," Carter said when they found no one else around.

"Yeah, but it looks like they're crawling around everywhere now," Jack said, remembering her warning before that they'd have company soon. Their little break was over, and they didn't even have anything from Almighty Thor to show for it.

"Where's Gairwyn?" Carter asked.

"No idea. Maybe Thor thought she was worthier than we were."

"I can't believe Thor just _left_ ," Daniel said, lowering his hand from where he'd been pressing the red stone on the pillar, as if hoping Thor would answer them again.

"O'Neill," Teal'c called softly.

Jack followed the Jaffa's gaze into the distance and saw what had caught the man's attention.

Heru-ur's ship had arrived and landed while they were gone. Somewhere on this planet, Heru-ur, Sha'uri, Amaunet, and the Harsesis kid...they were all _here_.

Quietly, Carter asked, "What now?"

Jack rubbed the back of his neck, then let out a breath. "Okay. We've got three objectives: evacuate the Cimmerians, try to get the Harsesis away from Heru-ur, and pick up Sha'uri and Amaunet. In that order." Daniel looked away but nodded and didn't try to argue. "Gairwyn said they don't leave the Stargate unguarded too often, so we're not gonna be able to waltz through there. We're not gonna be able to waltz anywhere at all," he added with a pointed look at the Horus Guards' still bodies.

"A distraction?" Carter suggested.

"Needs to be something big enough to leave the 'gate more or less open long enough for us to get all the Cimmerians through," Jack said.

"A challenge to Heru-ur's most recent prize," Teal'c said. "If his attention can be diverted to a threat to Sha'uri and her child, the Horus Guards at the Stargate may be called away."

Jack looked to him warily, thinking that this was perhaps almost as personal to Teal'c--Sha'uri's first captor looking for redemption--as it was to Daniel. "By 'divert,'" he guessed, "you mean trying to steal them back from under Heru-ur's nose."

"We can at least try, Jack," Daniel spoke up. "If we're successful, we can...can complete all the objectives. Even if Amaunet is in control, she might be willing to help us if it would get her away from Heru-ur. And if we're not successful, we'll still have a diversion and a chance to save the Cimmerians."

"Teal'c," Jack said, not taking his gaze from Daniel, "tell me this isn't an emotional decision."

"Indeed it is, O'Neill," the Jaffa said, making a flash of panic dart across Daniel's face. "It is also the best tactical decision that can be made with the information we possess."

Hoping it was the right choice--and knowing they had to act, now, before someone else stumbled on them--Jack nodded.

"Daniel," he said, hardening his voice, because they couldn't afford for this rebellious streak to get any wider, "listen to me, and listen good. We screw up, a lot of people could die. You will follow orders and _not_ go off and do your own thing. Is that understood?"

Daniel's defiance had almost washed away by now, abandoned as they were by Thor and on the brink of losing this world, Sha'uri, and the Harsesis for good. Jack could see the moment the last traces faded away into a focus sharpened by fear. "Yes," he said, quiet but firm.

"Okay." Jack took another look at the pyramids in the distance. "So. Plan." He ran an eye over the Jaffa they'd just taken out. Some of them had no obvious marks on them, dropped by zat fire. "Teal'c, help me get the armor off two of these guys. Carter, you still have some explosives?"

"Yes, sir, but--"

"Not enough, I know. All we want is to make some noise." The armor was uncomfortably heavy--they wouldn't be winning any races wearing it, but all they needed was to get in without being stopped. And out, preferably, but he was a little doubtful about that part, anyway; if they had Amaunet and the baby with them, they wouldn't get far before someone realized they weren't who they pretended they were. "Start putting this gear on, Teal'c. Carter, you take Daniel back to the caves and leave some mines behind you as you go. Then get the Cimmerians ready to leave and start bringing them toward the Stargate."

Finished first with his armor, Teal'c straightened to his full, imposing height. "The Guards must not see our faces or hear the Tau'ri language, or they will know we are not who we claim to be. If we are questioned, O'Neill, do not speak."

Jack let out a breath. "Yeah. Teal'c and I'll bluff our way past the Guards, get Sha'uri and the Harsesis, and rendezvous at the Stargate. Anything starts to go pear-shaped, we're out of there. Our first priority is to cause a little confusion so we can get to the Cimmerians. The Harsesis and Sha'uri are a bonus."

"What if you meet Heru-ur, sir?" Carter said, rummaging through her own pack and grabbing Teal'c's to split her claymores and C-4 between them. Daniel watched, tense, and stayed out of the way as they worked. "You can't pretend your orders are his if he's physically there."

"Furthermore, he was using a personal shield on Abydos," Teal'c added. "It cannot be breached by Jaffa weapons. The stronger the energy weapon, the more impenetrable the shield becomes."

Well. That was a new one. "How does that...?" she started, frowning, then shook her head. "Later. What about projectiles?"

"Ferretti's gun didn't work," Daniel said.

"A question of energy, then, maybe," she suggested. "If that's it, then try something with less kinetic energy. A knife, maybe."

"Yeah, let's try to avoid that step altogether," Jack said, but he made sure to keep his knife on him anyway. "We'll just avoid him, that's all."

"It won't take long for the Jaffa to figure out that you were lying, sir," Carter said as she finished and handed one bag of bomb to Jack and shouldered the other.

"No, it won't, especially since I'm gonna set some of these to go off wherever Heru-ur's keeping the prisoners, once we get them out of there," he said, holding up a block of C-4. "That's what we're counting on to call their attention away from the Stargate. We'll blow everything when we're out of sight, make them nervous, and try to keep them occupied a little longer so we can meet everyone at the Stargate. Carter, as soon as the 'gate's clear, start sending people through to Earth."

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Daniel, you give her a hand where you can, then get yourself back to the SGC."

"Yes, sir," Daniel echoed.

Jack gave them each a hard stare. "Everyone clear?"

Teal'c hefted his weapon. "Indeed."

"Act fast while their guard is down, before they realize anyone's here. Carter, go." She pulled Daniel with her, and the two of them disappeared running into the woods.

XXXXX

**_17 August 1998; Cimmeria; 1730 hrs_ **

From their vantage point at the edge of the woods, Jack and Teal'c could see several hastily constructed shelters, huts, and tents that seemed to serve as temporary living and working spaces while Heru-ur's stronghold on this planet was being built by human slaves. Judging by the range of complexions and clothing, the slaves seemed to be a mix of Cimmerians and humans that Heru-ur had brought from other planets.

From the numbers, the Jaffa must be spread pretty thinly over the rest of planet as well as here at what was apparently a base of operations. Still, it was way too many Jaffa for them to take on by themselves if it came to that.

Jack really hoped sweet-talking was one of Teal'c's hidden talents.

"After we get in and get the kid, we blow everything at once," Jack said in a low voice, gesturing back toward where they'd set the charges. "Give us time to get out and call their attention away from the Stargate." _Hopefully_. He checked once more to make sure his detonator was well-hidden as he watched the one shelter that was surrounded by a standing guard of Jaffa warriors--it had to be the one they were looking for. It was either where the Harsesis was being kept or Heru-ur's personal space, which Teal'c said was unlikely, given its otherwise unremarkable placement and appearance. Whether or not Heru-ur would be there, however, was a different story.

"You must follow my steps closely to know what transpires," Teal'c said. "I will speak only in Goa'uld once we are within shot of the Horus Guards' ears."

Jack automatically opened his mouth to correct the expression, then closed it, nodded, and snapped his helmet shut when Teal'c looked at him and frowned before closing his own helmet. Even though they'd done something like this once before on Chulak, Jack reflected that temporarily dressing like a priest until a few 'gate guards were taken out wasn't such a big deal; he couldn't say the same about walking up boldly to Jaffa warriors at the perimeter of a well-guarded enemy camp.

Still, they _should_ look like they belonged here as long as they didn't screw anything up. Or have to talk very much. Or have to open their visors. Or meet Heru-ur. Or have to give a password. Or have to know anything...

This was a bad idea waiting to go wrong. But it was too late to turn back, and there were no other options left.

Before they could leave their cover and step out of the woods, there was a commotion behind them in the form of the clanking of heavy, Jaffa armor. There was a loud rustling and the sound of snapping twigs, followed by a sneeze and a muffled cry.

Crap. Bad plan.

Jack swung back around to see Daniel stumbling to his knees and a Jaffa pulling his foot back as if to kick him, and Jack didn't realize he'd started to move forward until he felt the shaft of Teal'c's staff weapon against his chest holding him back.

" _Jaffa!_ " Teal'c snapped, making the Horus Guard withdraw his foot and look up in surprise. Teal'c whipped his staff around and fired immediately, and Daniel lurched halfway up to his feet and scrambled away from his captor's smoking body.

"Teal'c?" he said, his back against a tree now and edging away. "Are you...?" Jack retracted his helmet, and Daniel slumped back to his knees in relief. " _Ay, dewa'naturu_."

"Daniel, are you hurt?" Jack whispered urgently.

"No," Daniel whispered back, eyes still wide. "I think. No, I'm...I'm good."

Jack lowered himself to one knee to check him for injuries anyway. A layer or five of dirt, a few scrapes and bruises, maybe a few more hidden by cloth, but he was moving well enough. That would have to do. Jack glanced over his shoulder at Teal'c, still masked and standing guard. "Where's Carter? What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

Daniel pulled away and shook his head. "We got caught while we were trying to get to the Cimmerians. There are Jaffa everywhere now, Jack, they're all over, around the caves and near the Stargate, and there's no way to get through; we never even saw the ones that got us. But one of the Cimmerians tried to attack them at the same time, and Sam got away."

"She left? Where?" There was no way Carter would leave Daniel in enemy hands, which meant...damn. She was alone, possibly unarmed, and either trying to get to the caves by herself to gather reinforcements or sneaking toward _them_ for a rescue attempt as they spoke.

"I couldn't...I don't, I don't know, Jack, I'm sorry. I lost sight of her, and I couldn't...they--they were..."

"All right, it's okay," Jack said absently, starting to pull him back up to his feet, which actually ended up with Daniel standing on his own and helping Jack up because the armor was ridiculously heavy for someone without a Goa'uld in his stomach. "Crap," he realized, "I can't leave you sitting here on your own."

Teal'c turned to them suddenly. "There are no healers among the Jaffa. The Goa'uld use human slaves for that purpose on the rare occasion that it is necessary."

"What?" Jack said blankly, but Daniel understood and gulped.

"They'll need a human to care for a human baby," Daniel said. "If there's not one with Sha'uri already, they'll be expecting one to be sent to her soon."

"Shit," Jack said.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, "we must act."

"Yeah." Jack took in Daniel's increasingly ragged clothes and was almost thankful now that Daniel had been stupid enough not to wear anything weapon-like and that the Horus Guards here had never met Tau'ri before and would be unlikely to recognize him as who and what he was. "Shit," he said again. "Teal'c, can we pull this off?"

"Indeed."

"Daniel? You understand what we're gonna do? You think you can do this?"

Daniel swallowed hard again. "Yes, sir."

"No talking except Teal'c," he said, closing his helmet again. "All right. Our story is: Heru-ur wants someone to take care of the Harsesis until Amaunet recovers, so we snagged a healer on his orders. If they just landed, they probably didn't have time to find their own yet. If we get in, Daniel, you grab the baby and stay the hell out of the line of fire, you understand?"

"Understand."

"Then we make a run for it, blow things up, and hope it keeps them occupied long enough for us to escape."

Teal'c nodded and pulled Daniel toward himself by the arm to lead them toward the camp. " _Ar'ee, chal'ti,_ " he said quietly. " _Rel'tor'key._ "

" _Kel sha_ ," Daniel answered with a nod, visibly steeling himself, and then they were off.

One of the Guards at the perimeter of the camp said something as they approached, but Teal'c seemed relaxed as he answered, still holding Daniel in place by the arm. When the other Jaffa turned toward Daniel and chuckled behind his mask, Jack realized with a bit of a chill just how used to this kind of thing Teal'c was--talking, maybe even joking with other Jaffa about using, kidnapping, killing humans in order to keep his cover. Teal'c gave a short laugh in answer and prodded Daniel past the Horus Guard and into the camp. Jack wished this hadn't been the first time he'd heard Teal'c laugh.

Security was tighter around the large shelter they were headed for. Jack quickly took in the makeshift door made of a flap of heavy cloth. It was also the only structure with what appeared to be stationed guards and with all flap-doors closed.

Sha'uri and the Harsesis had to be in here. Jack's pulse started to speed with anticipation.

" _Obi tan,_ " a man in a warrior's armor ordered when they reached the entrance.

Then there were words flying back and forth between him and Teal'c, until the Guard reached out and grabbed Daniel by the chin to jerk his face up, eliciting a gasp of fear that Jack was sure hadn't been faked, because no one could fake the way Daniel was actually shivering in terror without the kind of training Jack hoped he never got.

Beyond them came the sound of a baby's whimpering. Daniel froze, his eyes turning to the closed doorway. Teal'c took a step closer to the Guard and brought his own helmeted face close enough to be threatening, growling something while jabbing his staff weapon toward the doorway. The Horus Guard waited another minute, considering, then let go and stepped aside.

Even braced for it, Jack still winced behind his helmet when Teal'c roughly shoved Daniel toward Jack, pointing toward the entrance with a barked order.

He caught Daniel as the kid staggered into him. Hoping he'd interpreted the order correctly, Jack tried to seem nonchalantly confident as he pulled open the flap and stepped inside with Daniel. Teal'c's voice said something else outside, and then the flap was pulled back once more as Teal'c stepped in.

_"Kel nok?_ " a Goa'uld voice said. The baby had fallen silent again.

There was a makeshift bed in the dim interior of the tent, and it was big enough that it would have seemed comfortable if it hadn't so obviously been a prison of sorts. It wasn't hard to figure out that the woman sitting up in the bed was Sha'uri. Which meant, of course, that the infant, wrapped haphazardly in someone's robe that doubled as a blanket and lying in her arms, must be the Harsesis.

Except that it wasn't Sha'uri, not exactly--it was Amaunet now. " _Jaffa!_ " Amaunet demanded again. " _Kel nok?_ "

Teal'c primed his staff weapon and aimed it at the Goa'uld. "Do not speak," he warned. "You and your child will be dead before anyone answers your calls."

Amaunet froze. Perhaps recognizing that she was relatively helpless, in enemy territory already, and surrounded by armed assailants, she didn't try to struggle.

Then again, maybe that wasn't why. The woman grimaced, then whispered, in a human voice, "Dan'yel?"

Daniel's eyes widened, and he pushed himself away from Jack. "Sha'uri," he breathed.

Relief flitted over Sha'uri's features, then fear. "Dan'yel, you cannot be here...the demon begins to grow strong again, and I cannot hold her very--"

Then her eyes flashed, and a pained expression crossed her face.

With no time for an apology to the host, Jack slapped a gloved hand roughly over her mouth and motioned to Teal'c to watch the entrance to the tent. "Daniel, get the baby." No response. "Jackson! Baby. _Now_." Daniel jumped and edged past his sister to steal her child. "Now you listen, Goa'uld," Jack went on, his voice low. "We're getting you and the baby out of here, but there's a lot at stake and a camp full of Jaffa between us and home. We can't take the time to drag you with us if you stir up trouble, so you make a fuss, and we will leave you behind."

Amaunet's (Sha'uri's?) eyes flicked to Daniel, who was picking up the Harsesis awkwardly, as if he'd never held a baby before, which, Jack remembered belatedly, maybe he never had.

When Jack removed his hand, it was Sha'uri who answered softly, "I will try to hold the demon at bay while she is still weak. We must be quick while Heru-ur is still within his _hatak_."

"You sure that's where he is?" Jack asked suspiciously, because Heru-ur had had enough time by now that he should have no reason to still be in there. Amaunet also had no reason to like them.

"I damaged some of the controls in the _peltak_ during the journey from Abydos," Sha'uri said, so proudly that, if it really _was_ still the host talking, Jack was certain the damage there hadn't been an accident. With only a little help--symbiotes did come in handy, sometimes--Sha'uri rose to her feet, whispering, "If I cannot hold Amaunet, you must leave me and save my son. There is a place where no Goa'uld will find him, where he can be helped. You must bring him there."

"We'll do our best to get you both somewhere safe," Jack told her, trying to hurry her up. "We'll get the kid back to your father, and..."

Sha'uri shook her head vigorously. "No, you must not! They will find him there; he would be their downfall. You must bring him to--"

She staggered, and Amaunet's eyes pieced into his as the Goa'uld surged forward again. "Where is my lord Apophis?" she demanded.

"Bringing you _away_ from your lord Heru-ur is the problem now," Jack snapped, covering her mouth again and repeating, "Don't make a fuss."

"O'Neill, we must hurry," Teal'c called quietly, letting go of the flap he'd been spying through.

"Yeah, I--"

"Heru-ur has called a gathering directly outside his _hatak_."

Jack kept his hand over Amaunet's mouth, caught Daniel's eye and gestured for him to stay out of sight, then carefully peered outside as well.

The human slaves were still working throughout the camp, but Horus Guards were gathering at the far end in front of Heru-ur--even the ones surrounding their tent had left their posts. The Goa'uld was yelling something to them. It sounded like angry scolding, though as far as Jack was concerned, the Goa'uld language managed to sound pretty angry without trying, so he couldn't be sure. "Can you hear them?"

"They seek intruders," Teal'c said. "They were captured but escaped."

"Damn. Carter?"

"He speaks of more than one human."

Wondering whether that was Carter and Daniel's run-in with Jaffa, or Carter and someone else, or several someone elses altogether, Jack observed, "Well, not us, then, or they'd be all over us now." This might be the distraction they needed to get out, though, since stealth would be pretty useless if they were taking a couple of prisoners with them. Daniel shifted awkwardly with the infant in his arms. "All right, anyone out the back, T?"

"There is not."

"Then--"

A tent on the other side of the camp _exploded_.

" _Ay_!" Daniel blurted as cloth and wood went up in flames, but it went unheard as cries sounded all over the camp. About half the Jaffa headed toward the explosion while the rest tried futilely to make the slaves stop panicking and running around. "Jack, was that...?"

"Not me," Jack said, dropping the cloth back over the doorway.

"Captain Carter," Teal'c suggested.

"Probably. That's our cue to leave. This way--out and around the back while they're still confused. Teal'c, take them straight toward the Stargate and don't wait up. I'll look for Carter and meet you."

Teal'c pulled Sha'uri out, Daniel on his heels with the baby. Jack bent and pressed a final block of C-4 under the bed, readied his detonator, and followed, only barely avoiding two slaves who zipped by him, apparently looking to escape in the mass chaos beginning to break out.

The Harsesis was most definitely awake, Jack saw as they tried to blend in with the Jaffa and the excitedly panicking slaves. The baby's dark eyes were already open and staring, but, incredibly, it-- _he_ ; Sha'uri had called it her son--was completely silent. Jack took a second to check whether the baby was even alive, but eerily calm infant eyes shifted toward him, and he backed off. Amaunet was quiet, too, though it was hard to say whether it was because Sha'uri was in control or because Amaunet understood the need to escape Heru-ur. It might also have had something to do with Teal'c's staff weapon pointed at her. Jack didn't care, either way, because they were almost out...

He sensed more than heard the other presence. Spinning quickly, he raised his staff weapon toward the figure coming toward them--

"Sir!" Carter whispered frantically, stepping out slightly from where she'd been hiding with another man. "It's us."

"Who's 'us'?" Jack hissed through the mask.

"Sons of Midgard!" Olaf whispered, coming partway to his feet. "I come to help in your fight."

"They're looking for you two. No, stay down!"

The Cimmerian warrior followed them and all of them ducked into the woods. "When the Ettin's chariot arrived," Olaf said quietly, "and you had not yet returned, I thought to divert his attention to allow you enough time to find Thor."

"Thoughtful of you, but change of plans," Jack told him. "That your fireball back there, Captain?"

"Yes, sir."

"We've got another distraction ready, but we've gotta get out of here first. Carter, d'you get to the Cimmerians?"

"Olaf and I looked for a way through, but there were Jaffa patrols everywhere. We couldn't get to the caves without compromising their position," she said, sweeping her gaze over all of them to take in who was there. "Daniel, thank God! You okay?"

"Fine, Sam," Daniel whispered.

"I'm sorry I--"

"Later!" Jack hissed at them.

Olaf frowned at Sha'uri as Teal'c pulled off his zat gun and gave it to an empty-handed Carter. "Who is the prisoner?"

"No time to explain now," Jack said. "The point is, Heru-ur's pissed off, and he's gonna be a lot _more_ pissed off soon when he finds out these two are gone. While they're organizing, we need to bring the rest of your people to the Stargate and evacuate them to somewhere safe."

"Leave our home?" the man asked, sounding shocked.

"Or you all stay in your cave for the rest of your lives," Jack snapped back as quietly as he could. "And I bet that won't be very long."

After a pause, the man hefted his axe. "As you say."

"Hold," Teal'c said. "A patrol approaches."

Jack peeked around the side of the cart and saw five Horus Guards clanking toward them. Other groups were moving off in other directions. "Wait 'til they pass," he whispered. "Then set off the charges and run, along the edge. Stay off the main roads. Carter, point; Teal'c, take Sha'uri, then Daniel and Olaf follow. I'll cover you." He hesitated, then lifted his borrowed helmet off and started to pull off his armor as quietly as he could, handing the detonator to Carter. Stealth would be useless if anyone saw them now, and he needed to keep pace with Carter, who was usually faster than he was on a sprint even when he wasn't wearing a heavy metal suit. Teal'c eased off his helmet, too, for visibility, though he left his metal breastplate on--he might need to act as a shield for any of the civilians if the Horus Guards opened fire.

As the sound of metallic stomping came closer, Jack motioned at them for quiet, then took a minute to look down at the Harsesis and make sure the kid was breathing. Quiet was a good thing, for the moment, but what newborn didn't make a sound while strangers carted him around? Sha'uri was eyeing the baby longingly. Teal'c readjusted his grip on his staff weapon so that it pointed directly at the woman. Daniel watched both of them and hugged the infant to his chest.

"Can you run like that?" Jack asked him quietly. Daniel nodded jerkily, pulling the baby even closer. "Keep his head steady, and don't let him bounce around. Hold him tight--if you're squeezing too tight, he'll let you know. Run fast, stay low, and leave the rest to us. You just worry about yourself and the baby." Daniel nodded again, sliding one hand over to cup around the baby's head.

"Kheb," Sha'uri whispered suddenly, making Daniel look up at her in confusion. She was staring at Daniel with an intensity that made Jack wonder who was in control, despite the distinctly human voice; the Goa'uld could control that, too, after all. "You must take my son to Kheb, Dan'yel."

"Kheb? But...but why? Where? What is--"

"There is no time!" she said urgently. "You will find answers there."

Daniel opened his mouth, but Jack cut him off with a "Shh!" before any more conversation could pass between them.

Almost as one, they shrank back against their meager cover as the Horus Guards moved past them. Not for the first time, Jack thanked the Goa'uld for their custom of intimidation by letting their Jaffa wear and use nothing that wasn't big and loud. He caught Carter's eye as the sound of boots faded and held up three fingers. She nodded, fingered the detonator, and rose a little higher from her crouch, the others doing the same. Teal'c's hand gripped Sha'uri's arm, ready to pull her up and along with him.

Three...two...one...

The explosion was echoed by yells all over the camp as several of the Horus Guards veered off their course toward the now-flaming shelter where Amaunet used to be and the others went to seek out the other source of the noise. "Go!" Jack said, and Carter led the way with Teal'c half-holding, half-dragging Sha'uri along. Olaf followed, and Daniel tucked the silent Harsesis against his chest and raced after them. Jack wasted no time in weaving through the crowd of bewildered human slaves to chase after his team.

The main road to the Stargate was in view when a shout reached them, not from behind, but from the surrounding forest. Horus Guards were beginning to appear from both sides, staff weapons rising. "Keep running!" Jack yelled, then, "Carter, left!"

Without stopping, he turned to his right and fired his staff weapon toward the Jaffa coming their way, Carter's zat shooting in the other direction as Teal'c growled at Daniel and Sha'uri to run faster, _faster_. The fire slowed their pursuers, but not nearly enough. Any minute now, they'd be taking blasts...

Except none of the Horus Guards was priming a weapon. The Jaffa were closing in fast on their group, yelling to each other, but not actually shooting back.

"My lord will come for me!" Amaunet cried suddenly, mingled with Teal'c's, "O'Neill, they seek the child!"

Which would explain why no one wanted to shoot and risk hitting the baby.

"Teal'c, Daniel, go! Olaf, get to the caves, get your people! Carter, drop back with me--we'll cover 'em!"

Before she could, however, Amaunet began to fight against Teal'c and shrieked, " _Kree kal shak, shol'va! Kal kek m'al!_ "

One of the Horus Guards took advantage of the momentary struggle and primed his weapon, firing directly at the two of them. Amaunet took the blast in the shoulder and dropped to the ground with a cry. Jack cursed. Of course they wouldn't mind hitting the queen--they just wanted her kid.

"Sha'uri!" Daniel shouted, catching up to his sister.

"No, don't stop, run to the 'gate, Daniel!" Jack said, letting go of his weapon with one hand to push Daniel forward, but the woman rose partially and her good hand shot up to grab Daniel's leg.

"I will heal," Sha'uri's pained voice said. "Save my son. Take him to Kheb, Dan'yel--remember!"

And then Jack shoved Daniel away and watched just long enough to see him duck into the woods and disappear in the direction of the Stargate. A few of the Horus Guards pulled Amaunet away, back toward Heru-ur and his camp, but the rest pursued them, hampered by their heavier armor but aided by the enhanced strength from their symbiotes. As Jack turned started firing, he heard Carter prime her zat gun again beside him and Teal'c shooting from the other side.

A loud, rumbling sound met their ears, and Jack looked up to see storm clouds moving in.

Great. Just what they needed to cap off the day. Hopefully, at least it would slow the Jaffa down as much as it slowed the rest of them.

"Go," he ordered tersely as the first line of Guards fell, and they turned and took to the forest path to close the distance between them and their companions before turning again to fire on...

No one. What the hell?

"Sir?" Carter asked.

"They flee," Teal'c observed. Not only were they no longer being followed, but they could see the Horus Guards falling back to camp, yelling frantically at each other. Teal'c tilted his head. "The First Prime is ordering them to return to the _hatak_. The queen has already been taken there."

"You think they'll attack from the air?"

"I don't care," Jack said. "Get to Daniel at the 'gate."

When they emerged from the woods, another ominous rumbling sounded, but this time, it wasn't thunder. "The _hatak_ has been launched," Teal'c said, not pausing his run. Jack looked back through the darkening sky to see something that looked vaguely like a pyramid rising into the air. "Others may soon follow."

"Carter, what are you doing?" Jack barked when she slowed.

"It's moving away, sir," she told him. "It's not following us--"

A flash of lightning split the sky, followed by a deafening _boom_ of thunder. Jack flinched despite himself and tracked the mothership's progress as it rose higher and higher, moving inexplicably away from them. Suddenly, it accelerated and disappeared from sight, almost as if it were entering--

"Hyperspace," Teal'c said.

"What, they ran away?" Jack said incredulously. "We're not that scary."

"No, sir," Carter said, "but _that_ is." She pointed at another ship, so dark in contrast to the gleaming Goa'uld ships that it was almost hidden against the storm-darkened sky. It was easy to see, however, that it was even bigger-- _much_ bigger--than the Goa'uld mothership and seemed to content to remain hovering over Heru-ur's encampment.

"The hell is that?" Jack asked. None of them had time to answer, however, before a bright beam of light shot down from it and scanned over the camp. A few final Jaffa who had continued pursuing them and hadn't made it back to camp were engulfed in the beam and disappeared.

"Thor," Carter said, her face lighting up. "That beam looks just like what took us into the Hall of Might, sir. It must be Thor, or the Asgard."

"Looks like the same sort of tech, but a lot bigger," Jack agreed, giving Teal'c a worried glance as he remembered Thor's Hammer. "C'mon, keep moving."

The Stargate was in sight when the sky suddenly cleared. Jack glanced back reflexively just in time to see the dark Asgard ship zooming away before it disappeared into hyperspace as well.

Daniel was crouching alone by the DHD when they got there, his body curled around the baby as if that would protect it against any serious attack. As they approached, he jumped and started to look for better cover, then sighed in relief when he realized who they were.

And then the relief disappeared, because the Harsesis chose that moment to start to cry.

Daniel's terrified eyes met Jack's, even as he rose to his feet and bent close to the infant, whispering, " _Shh, sinu'ket._ Jack, I didn't do anything to him, I swear I didn't. I don't know what...what do I...?"

So. Yeah. That talk he'd had planned for when they got home... This complicated things.

"Carter, dial home," Jack ordered, still not quite convinced they were in the clear. He moved to Daniel's side, running his eyes over his crying baby to make sure nothing was wrong with him before scanning the horizon for any stray Jaffa. "You're fine, Daniel, you're both fine, but let go a little or you'll smother him."

"What if I drop him?" Daniel said, sounding panicked, though he eased his grip around the newborn very slightly and murmured, " _Sinu'ket, sa'djiri._ "

Before Carter could finish, however, Jack caught a bright light out of the corner of his eye, and all three of them whirled to see Gairwyn appear-- _appear_ , just like that--in the middle of the road. Jack glanced upward, but there was nothing--no ship or device of any sort--that he could see that could have done it. The Harsesis's cries subsided to soft, hiccupping whimpers, and if it hadn't been a newborn infant, Jack would have sworn the expression in its face was curiosity.

"The Ettins are gone," Gairwyn told them calmly. "Thor sends his thanks. It was your help that made this possible; Thor was very far from here, and you held off their forces until he could arrive to save us."

"But they escaped," Daniel spoke up. "Both of the Ettins escaped, into the _hatak_."

Misunderstanding his hope for fear, Gairwyn smiled kindly at him. "One of the ships fled before Thor came in his chariot, it is true, but it is no matter. Cimmeria is safe now. We have much to rebuild, but Thor will send an Asgard teacher to us to help us and ensure that the Ettins can never come to our world again."

Finally reassured, Jack let his weapon snap shut. "That's very nice, but I'd still like to meet the old guy."

"Well," Gairwyn said, her smile becoming wry, "he said that, like us, you are still much too young. But he told me to give you a message to satisfy your curiosity. Thor is a member of a species who have visited your world often. They are a friend to all, protector to all--except the Goa'uld, with whom they are at war."

"Then Cimmeria will be a safe world again," Teal'c said, looking satisfied. "That is good."

"Yes, it is. And I'm to tell you that Thor was impressed by the bravery shown by the one called Teal'c, during the tests and after, in defense of this world. The new Hammer will make an exception for you, and you are welcome here at any time. He says..." She hesitated, her eyes cutting toward the baby. "He says that you are all welcome, excepting the Ettin-born child."

Daniel looked up sharply. The Harsesis wailed loudly, bawling so furiously that it began to choke on its own cries, and Daniel's attention was once again redirected to the baby.

Well. If they'd had any doubts about whether or not Harsesis kids were normal...

"Right," Jack said, torn between the two sources vying for his attention. "Gairwyn--thanks for your help."

"No," she protested, reaching into a pouch that hung at her waist. "You and your people are the ones who have saved us."

Jack accepted the pebble she was holding out, with what looked like another rune carved into it. "Ah...right. I'll just give this to..." For once, Daniel was too occupied to be curious about a rock with writing on it, his hands full trying awkwardly to readjust the robe wrapped around the infant before it slipped off and left them with a butt-naked newborn who was also trying to scream their ears off, so Jack pocketed the pebble instead and nodded at Carter to finish dialing. "It's very...nice."

"It is only a small token of our thanks," Gairwyn said.

_After almost getting your world taken over_ , he thought, but decided not to push his luck. "Well, Olaf will be here soon with the others who were in hiding. We've gotta go now, but we'll try to keep in touch. C'mon, kids," he called as the _kawhoosh_ shot outward and settled. Sending the IDC himself, he reached across Daniel's arms to tuck the robe more tightly around the whimpering Harsesis, then walked back home with his team.


	8. Team

**_18 August 1998; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

Janet was in her office when Sam poked her head in. "Sam, come in."

"How's everything?" Sam asked, stepping in.

Janet sighed. "I think I had a flashback to the NICU rotation I did during my residency," she said wryly, sipping a cup of coffee and rubbing her eye. "Cassandra seemed like a handful at eleven, but one night of baby-watching with the...what was that word?"

"Harsesis."

"Yes. You know, there's a reason I went into deadly diseases instead of pediatrics."

Sam grimaced. "Guess you don't normally deal with a lot of babies around here."

"Not besides you people, anyway," Janet said grumpily, then put down her coffee and folded her hands in her lap. "So. What do you need? Still having trouble sleeping?"

Sam glanced reflexively over her shoulder to see if someone else could have heard that, because she did _not_ need anyone thinking she was cracking after that...experience with Jolinar, then assured her friend, "No, no, I'm...it's not...I told you, it was just a few weird dreams."

Too gently, Janet said, "Sam, it's understandable. Being taken by a Goa'uld...I can't imagine, but I'm sure that an invasion like that is akin to--"

"Janet, really, uh... No. It's not like that." Janet made a noncommittal sound. Sam sighed. "Look, you said Jolinar was a second mind in...in my body, right? I think maybe I'm just starting to remember some...memories." _Remember memories. Good one, Carter. Articulate_. "They're just too vague now to get a grasp on anything."

"The symbiote's memories?" Janet leaned back, looking thoughtful. "Dreams often call up things hidden in our subconscious. If the Goa'uld--"

"Tok'ra," Sam corrected automatically, stopping herself just short of reminding her friend that the Tok'ra had had a name, because honestly, what a _stupid_ thing to think about.

Janet paused and gave her a piercing look, but went on, "If the Tok'ra left some memories in your mind, I wouldn't be surprised if you started unburying them through your dreams first."

"Yeah...anyway, that's not why I'm here," Sam said, eager to get off the subject. "I was wondering about the Harsesis." She determinedly didn't squirm while Janet stared at her, until the doctor accepted the change in topic.

"Right. That. Dr. Rothman was here last night to check up on Daniel. They were talking about somewhere we're supposed to take the baby, I think, but from what I overheard, it was more myths and speculation than anything solid."

Sam nodded. "The Harsesis' mother mentioned something called Kheb. She talked about getting answers there and said that something at Kheb could help him, but I've never heard of it."

"We'll deal with that when it comes. Until then..." Janet paged through a chart. "I can tell you that there's no naquadah bomb in his chest, no immediate visible danger to us, and no apparent medical problems for the baby. He's remarkably healthy after that little adventure you all had."

"Good."

"Well. More or less."

Unable to stop a little groan, Sam begged, "Please tell me there's nothing..."

"It's just...do you remember those blood samples that SG-11 brought from Argos?"

"That's where the...oh geez. Nanocytes?" Her stomach dropped, and she turned to squint at the baby, trying to decide if it looked older than it had last night. _He_ , she reminded herself. It was a _he_. Even if it was a Harsesis, too. "Exactly the same, the one-hundred day program?"

"No, not the same, I'm sure, but this isn't exactly something we learned in med school. These look the same to me, but they're...inactive, I think, not even trying to replicate themselves. The Argosian nanocytes needed to be within range of their transmitter, though, so the ones in the Harsesis might need some other signal."

"Then...they're still not acting exactly like those Argosian nanocytes did."

"Apophis isn't exactly Pelops, either," Janet pointed out. "They could be based on similar technology but still have completely different programs."

"But he's not aging?" Sam said.

Janet snorted. "Well, he's twice as old as he was yesterday."

"Janet..."

"He hasn't suddenly aged a few months in the space of a day, no. Maybe the baby's growth will accelerate after a time, to allow for fuller physical and cognitive development at this early stage--I can't know, but it looks like they're shut off."

"But they're still in the body," Sam clarified. "Inactive, foreign particles in the bloodstream should be cleared by the immune system, shouldn't they?"

"Yeah, and there's nothing apparently wrong with the boy's immune system," Janet said. "We think some signal that the Argosian nanites were transmitting contributed to their ability to evade the immune system. So... _these_ nanocytes might be active after all, but you couldn't tell by looking at them, and I have no way of safely removing them from _all_ of his tissues."

"Right," Sam said, trying to think what that could mean but knowing she couldn't test it, because last time she'd tried poking at nanites in a dish, they'd started eating their way through Med Lab 2 and had had to be incinerated. No way was she risking that again, not unless it was unavoidable. She wondered if they could just try providing the nanites with the right frequencies to turn them off, and then wondered what the medical side effects were of blasting a newborn baby's head with various frequencies of radiation in the hopes that something might happen. Then again, if the nanites were off, the wrong frequency might turn them _on_ , which could be...well, bad, considering they could be programmed to do anything. "Actually..." she said as a thought struck her.

"What?"

"Daniel's sister said the Harsesis has some sort of knowledge. Even Teal'c's not sure what that means, but I've been thinking Goa'uld genetic memory. But maybe that's not it at all; maybe there's information stored in those nanocytes, somehow."

"Too bad we don't know much about manipulating nanocytes, then," Janet pointed out.

"Yeah. So if this Kheb place can tell us something, I guess we really _do_ need to find it." Maybe there was some technology there to remove the nanocytes from the baby and destroy them--like...like wiping a hard drive--or extract usable information from them...

"Well, don't get too caught up in your nanocyte-memory theory, because there _are_ some anomalies in his DNA." Janet grimaced apologetically. "The larval Goa'uld that Hathor spawned earlier this year carried DNA as genetic material, and preliminary tests on the Harsesis show several regions with sequences similar to what we found in Hathor's Goa'uld."

Sam chewed her lip. "So this human baby could have Goa'uld genetic memory, after all."

"Or it could be something else entirely. Those regions haven't been fully sequenced and analyzed, so...they might be non-coding regions with some regulatory function or no function at all. They might be encoding some Goa'uld trait. They might make him superhuman. They might be nothing. The fact is, Sam, we have no idea. I'm out of my league, here."

Sam hesitated, then said, "Teal'c says that the genetic memory is part of the reason why the Goa'uld are born evil."

"For now," Janet said firmly, "we'll deal with him as a normal, human baby. Believe it or not, a quiet one, as babies go, but..."

Sam frowned, remembering how Daniel had dragged a newborn halfway across a planet, without a whimper until they were almost home. Almost as if the baby had known...

"Is that normal?" she asked, then reminded herself that their idea of 'normal' probably didn't apply when this baby was probably the only Harsesis in existence, and possibly the only one or one of few _ever_ to have been in existence.

"Some kids are quieter than others," Janet assured her. "Trust me--there is nothing wrong with that set of lungs he's got on him. Don't go jumping the gun."

"If you say so," Sam said. "And you're right. Daniel's sister--the host--could've been wrong, or the Goa'uld could've been trying to trick us through her, so really, all we know about the Harsesis, or Kheb, or anything is little more than speculation right now." Which was good, in a way, because if it sounded like just another myth, the Pentagon might not sweep in right away to poke around in the Harsesis' brain.

"In any case, for reasons of security, he's staying at the SGC until we can decide whether he's a victim or a time bomb or both. Besides, with a familial connection on base..."

"Family? You mean Daniel?" Sam said uncertainly.

"They put the baby...sort of in his charge." At her incredulous look, Janet clarified, "Just officially, on paper. It's more of a...next-of-kin thing, really. We figure it might make the Abydons more comfortable, and it'll make our own higher-ups think less about aliens and intel until we have a better idea of what we're dealing with."

Because it might make them think instead about the lost baby and the teenaged older brother who'd tried to rescue him and was now trying to take care of him. Higher-ups weren't the only ones who'd be thinking hard about that. "But you'll keep an eye on him?" Sam asked.

"The health of people on this base is my responsibility, Sam, not Daniel's," Janet reminded her. "And I was just complaining before; I don't mind looking out for them both. The baby's adorable, really, when he's not crying."

"And do we have to worry about security?" And that sounded silly and paranoid, because she was talking about an infant, but she was also talking about forbidden Goa'uld offspring, so she'd take _silly and paranoid_ over being killed in their sleep by something their scans couldn't pick up. There were still nanocytes in there doing--or _not_ doing--who knew what, after all, and genes that could encode who knew what...

"Well, whatever dangerous secrets the Harsesis has," Janet said, "there will be some serious physical and cognitive limitations to what a human baby can do on his own."

They could learn a lot from this kid, but Sam was inclined to be cautious. She knew better than most, after all, how difficult it could be to hold onto humanity--and sanity--with Goa'uld _anything_ in one's head.

"For now," Janet added, "I think the feeding and diaper changing will be a bigger problem than security. And Daniel notices if the baby even twitches, so we'll have plenty of advance warning if he starts aging rapidly or something."

Sam felt her brow wrinkle. "Daniel's not in there."

Janet took a look for herself. "Really? He's been hanging around since you all got back last night. He just stepped out when the baby fell asleep--looked like he was going toward the supply closet, but I thought he would've been back already."

"He's been here all night?" Sam asked.

"All night."

When they'd returned from Cimmeria... 'drained' was an understatement. Teal'c had been scowling, stoically waiting for a reprimand that never came about losing Sha'uri and Amaunet when he'd had her in his grasp. The colonel had given a report and then looked unsure whether to stare at Daniel's scraped knees or at Sam's scraped knuckles. Sam had had eyes only for a hand-shaped bruise peeking out from under the torn edge of Daniel's sleeve where a Jaffa had grabbed him, and she'd never gotten the reprimand she was waiting for, either, for failing to protect him from the enemy. Daniel hadn't even noticed, trying frantically to stop the baby from crying long enough to pass the regular decontamination protocols and to give a brief accounting of events, until Hammond had taken pity--or decided to salvage his own sanity--and sent them and the infant off to the infirmary.

The mission would, however, be considered a major success on paper. They'd contacted the Asgard race; wiped out a substantial chunk of Heru-ur's army; prevented a few Goa'uld from trampling into Nagada village; fixed their blunder on Cimmeria; and gained the Harsesis child, whatever that meant, and kept him away from at least three Goa'uld who wanted him for themselves. After destroying the Goa'uld motherships earlier that year, it was looking like SG-1 and their genius linguist kid brother were starting a list of improbable victories. There were even beginning to be jokes--and a few questioning, not-so-joking looks--about SG-1, the smallest unit at only three people, which normally disliked taking a temporary fourth member, training the youngest member of the SGC to fit their already-unusual roster.

Sam knew it would be a long time before SG-1 and Daniel would be able to think of that day without thinking of how many ways they'd each failed.

"I gave him his check-up," Janet was saying, "and made him get a shower and a change of clothes, but no one had the heart to make him leave."

"I'm not sure he'd listen if you ordered him out," Sam admitted. She sighed and confided, "Back on Cimmeria...don't get me wrong, Janet. Daniel's quick, and he follows orders just fine when he wants to follow them, but he needs to learn that it's not okay to decide _not_ to." He'd been obviously inexperienced, too, but everyone was at first; at least Daniel hadn't choked too badly. He might be pretty good with real training under his belt, even, but there was a load of discipline missing.

Janet's expression stayed impassive. "Sounds like it turned out all right. It's hard, choosing between family and...orders."

Which, of course, only reminded Sam that she'd followed her orders to the _goddamned letter_ , and for that, her dad, himself a decorated major general in the US Air Force and apparently a good personal friend of General Hammond, would die ( _not die, just sick, her dad wouldn't die_ ) thinking she had a useless desk job studying satellites instead of fulfilling his dreams. Her dreams. Whatever.

"Well. That's something Daniel will need to learn," Sam said curtly.

With a raised eyebrow, Janet said, "Sam, he's fifteen."

The bitterness shriveled at the reminder. "Yeah." She was a grown woman and could deal with her problems on her own time; someone needed to keep an eye on Daniel. She was the one who hadn't protected him yesterday. "Did Colonel O'Neill ever come in?"

"Right after your post-mission exam, in fact."

"And?"

"Had a little talk, privately. Then Daniel came back in here, and the colonel left."

"Hm." She wondered if there'd been a reprimand, CO to insubordinate subordinate, and wondered if it had really been for the best. She checked her watch; they had a briefing later concerning the Abydos trip scheduled for the next day, but there was time yet. "Janet, where did you say Daniel went?"

XXXXX

The door to the medical supply closet was closed, so she cracked it open, looked inside, then pulled it open more fully. As she had expected, Daniel stood there with his back braced against the wall, staring at the ground. When the door creaked, he straightened, not looking up, turned his back to her, and began to look through a bin on the shelves, apparently at random.

Sam closed the door again and walked up behind him. She peered into the bin he was rummaging in, quirked an eyebrow, and said, "Hm. Not sure what you're planning on doing with nitrile gloves; latex is usually fine unless you're allergic--which you're not--or you're working with nasty solvents."

Daniel dropped his hands, his whole body drooping a little, but didn't turn around.

"Now, _this_ ," she went on, picking up a bottle of baby powder and shoving it under his nose, "might be closer to what you were looking for. Baby duty and all."

"I'm," he said, then cleared his throat. "I'm really not..."

"...in the mood? Maybe you need one of these," she suggested lightly, holding up a pillow covered in hospital blue plastic. "Look familiar?" He didn't look. "It's called a pillow. Here on Earth, we use pillows when we sleep. Which I thought you knew already, but maybe you're not so familiar with its use these days."

" _Yi shay_ ," he breathed, a little annoyed now.

"I'm just saying--you run on empty too long, you're gonna fall asleep in the middle of a translation, and you know Dr. Rothman would--"

"It won't matter if they throw me out, Sam!" he finally cut her off, spinning around in exasperation. She didn't have time to decide whether his reddened eyes were from sleeplessness or something else before he turned back and leaned his hands against the shelving, taking a deep breath.

"Wha..." she said intelligently. "Wait, who told you that?"

"No one," he mumbled. "General Hammond wants to get this business with Abydos settled first. But tomorrow, after he's had a chance to work things out with Kasuf, he...wants to see me in his office. And I know I messed up. I _really_ messed up."

Sam winced in sympathy, knowing the general was a reasonable man but also knowing how ominous it always felt to be called into the general's office. And besides, this time, any reasonable man would have plenty of good reason to be unhappy about what had happened. It wasn't her place to say something that might contradict the general, but she was confident enough saying, "That doesn't mean... If we kicked people out every time they made a mistake, we'd run low on personnel very fast. And besides, if General Hammond's waiting until you help us finish the Abydos business before discussing things with you, then obviously, he still wants your help."

He didn't move.

"Daniel, no one's kicking you out. Is that why you're skulking in a closet?"

"No," he said, but didn't elaborate.

"Is it the baby--you needed a break?" He twitched, and she went on, carefully, "You can't stay up watching over him forever. You don't have to feel like he's your responsibility."

"He's family," Daniel answered edgily, his fingers tightening on the bin of nitrile gloves but not pretending to be occupied with anything this time. "My little brother. And it's not like he has his mother or his...his grandfather to take care of him right now."

Not his father, she noticed, but, considering who the father was, that was understandable. "I'm just worried that you'll get too attached--"

"Too _attached?_ " he repeated, an edge in his voice.

"That didn't...come out the way I wanted," she said apologetically. "I know you're close to his mother. But we can't keep him on base forever, you know that. Even if...well, this base is no place to raise a baby. And you can't forget that he's--"

"The child of two Goa'uld," he interrupted resentfully. "Right?"

"I was about to say that he's an unknown variable in a lot of ways, that's all. Daniel--"

"He's a _baby_ , Sam!" Daniel burst out, thumping a fist uselessly on the wall. "A baby. Without a...without...not even his mother to..." He stopped suddenly and rubbed his forehead, exhaling shakily.

Sam took hold of his shoulders and firmly turned him around. He kept his face turned away but didn't try to break out of her grasp. "I'm sorry we weren't able to bring your sister back," she said, and she meant it. She could only imagine: finding Sha'uri by accident, after almost a year, and being so close to bringing her home, Goa'ulded but _safe_ , not once but twice. And then, to lose her again...

"You gave me a pen when I first came to Earth," Daniel said abruptly, apropos of nothing.

"What?" She had, almost a year ago. Back in the days when Daniel had been a bundle of scared, confused grief that couldn't hide behind anything but his curiosity and intellect, she'd given him translations and busywork to do, but that didn't tell her why he was bringing it up now.

"You gave me a fountain pen and a notebook. I knew how automatic pens worked, but it was a little bit like...like magic, still, the first time."

"Well," Sam said, still lost. "I'm--"

"There were stories from my parents about...machines, weapons that could destroy Ra by pushing a button... And now, I _know_ it isn't that easy, I've seen it myself, but there are so many wonders on Earth that I thought, once we found Skaara or Sha'uri, we could somehow...we could _save..._ " He stared at the floor and said in a tiny voice, "I promised Kasuf that we would save his daughter, Sam. That I would make sure she was safe."

There was nothing she or anyone else could say to make that any better. That didn't mean she couldn't try.

"You did everything you could," Sam said firmly. "She was wounded, yes, but--no, no, Daniel, listen to me. She was wounded, _not_ killed. It wasn't a fatal hit, and with a symbiote, she'll heal fast. She's more useful to Heru-ur alive than dead, now that he's lost a lot of his army and reputation. And we saved her son."

Daniel glanced at her. "I've heard people talking since we got back. Half of them seem to think it was a really good idea, going to Cimmeria, and the other half think it was a really selfish one."

Here it was.

She could imagine the gossip this last trip would have generated--some people laughing, slapping him on the back for his daring, and others frowning in disapproval at the irresponsibility that could have cost them all their lives. "And what do _you_ think?"

"I don't... I wasn't really...thinking. At the time."

"I don't buy that," Sam said. He looked up again, startled, more nervous now, but she knew Daniel well enough to know he could be reckless but not unthinking. And that was even more frightening, because it meant he knew exactly what he was doing and had _convinced_ himself it was the right thing to do. "I didn't come here to yell at you; I just want to know what you were thinking."

He swallowed, then said, in a rush, "The Cimmerians have probably never seen anyone good come through the Stargate. With the Hammer gone...it turned out Olaf was hiding when I came out, waiting to ambush anyone who came through the 'gate, and he only let go of me and started to listen when he saw I was human and not armed. If someone had gone through with a gun or something, especially if they recognized SG-1, there would have been a fight, and someone would have died or been hurt. And they weren't the enemy. It...just...seemed like a good idea back on Abydos. It was the best option I could think of."

Sam winced at the image, grateful she hadn't seen him almost get chopped in half by Olaf's axe. "That's a big assumption for something so risky." And a lot of conviction for something he must have thought about for all of ten seconds. "Look, I'm aware of what a lot of the scientists here think, but just because we're in the military doesn't mean we run in, guns blazing, without thought for other options."

"I know you do try the diplomatic route," he said hastily. "I know that's proper procedure--always look for peaceful solutions first, but you can't always to do that, because it's dangerous, and defense comes first when there's doubt. I know I shouldn't have...run off."

_'But_...' she heard.

"But," he said, "what if it's the only way?"

"Then you _talk_ to your teammates, Daniel!" she said. He flinched, and she was aware that she'd just said she wasn't going to yell at him but she also still remembered how she'd spent a long few minutes thinking she'd get to Cimmeria and find his dead body on the ground, and maybe everyone else's too. "Do you understand what could have happened?"

"Yes, I do, Sam, and I didn't--"

"We were terrified, Daniel, we thought--"

"I'm sorry!" he insisted. "Sam, _please_ , it wasn't...I didn't think...I wasn't trying to put in you danger, you have to believe me, I would never...but..." He raked a shaking hand through his hair, turning away, his voice shaking, too. "But he took her. I was so close--I was...seconds, literally, at the DHD, but I took too much time for myself, before, and we almost got her back here and, and...gods, he _took_ her, Sam! And she was--she'd already been--I don't know what the word is, but she--"

"All right, hey, calm down," she said, taking a step toward him with a hand out just as he looked up again. He took a step away from her and backed into the wall, his eyes wide. "Daniel, I'm not gonna _hit_ you."

"I know," he moaned, sinking into a crouch with the heels of his hands ground into his eyes. "I wasn't...I know, Sam." Sam started to bend down, too, but she didn't want to spook him any more when he was jumpy already and running on the adrenaline that came with a day of running for dear life on top of no sleep. So she was leaning helplessly against the opposite wall and watching when he suddenly rose to his feet, rubbing his nose, and said, "I, uh...I should get back to Sharemes--"

"Back...to what?" she asked, more cautious now, because these days he only slipped and blurted foreign words when he was really tired or upset, and she knew that he was both right now.

Or maybe not. He stopped with a hand on door's handle. "I...I've been calling him that. It's just a... It means 'son of Sha'uri.'"

"You _named_ the Harsesis?" she said, trying not to wince.

"It is the custom of our people to name a child within a day of his birth," he said tightly, reverting to the carefully enunciated speech he used when he was scared or angry and trying not to show it. "He needs a name that's not 'child of two Goa'uld.' And I thought it better that he be named for his mother, not for... Because thus far, everyone has defined him for what he is to Apophis, and they forget that he is also the son of his human mother, who is known as Sha'uri."

Absurdly, Sam thought of the time her brother Mark had found a stray dog and tried to keep it. ' _Don't name it_ ,' their dad had ordered. ' _I'm not having you getting too attached._ ' Which made her think of her dad yet again, which she couldn't do right now, not if she wanted to have this out with Daniel.

"Daniel," she tried carefully, "I just don't want you to be hurt when--"

"I can't call him some Goa'uld name, Sam! I'm not asking it of you. But until he meets his grandfather and, and...and receives a name, I am going to call my baby brother Sharemes."

_And I'm calling him the Harsesis,_ Sam thought privately, because defenseless baby or not, they couldn't afford to forget what he was, not when the stakes were high enough to make System Lords scared.

"Have you even looked at him?" he asked suddenly. "The baby. Have you _really_ looked at him?"

Not sure what he was getting at, she said, "I wasn't trying to drag you away from your...your little brother." When he remained hovering at the door, uncertain, she lowered herself to sit on the floor, the way Daniel used to do all the time even when there was a chair right next to him, and said, more gently, "Janet's watching him now. He's fine. Come back and talk to me for a minute. Please." The floor was hard and cold, and a shelf was digging into her spine, but she'd sat in more uncomfortable places for less important things.

When he finally did, sliding down opposite her, he stared at his knees instead of looking at her. She racked her brains for something to say now that he wasn't running away, but before she could, he spoke, tentative in the way Daniel usually wasn't these days. "S-sam?"

"Yeah, Daniel," she said immediately, glad for the opening.

"What...how do you..." He stopped, suddenly very interested in the loose thread he was fiddling with on his jacket sleeve. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. It's not...appropriate to..."

"No, go ahead. You can ask me anything, you know that."

He still hesitated, though, and didn't meet her eyes when he said, slowly at first and then faster, "I don't know...in English...when a woman is...when she is forced to carry a man's child..." Sam's heart clenched and her breath caught as she realized what he was babbling about. "I don't know why I keep...I just keep thinking that I don't know the word, and it's not like it makes a difference, right, what it's...but I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't--"

"'Rape,'" she managed to say in a normal voice. "That's what it's called."

Daniel went very still and didn't answer for a while. When he did, it was to say, " _Rapio, rapere._ From Latin. To take by force."

For a moment, Sam could only gape in disbelief at the flatness, the abrupt lack of emotion that colored his tone as he worked out the etymology of a word that meant something so appalling, something that had been done to his sister, and could that really be the way men thought on a planet like Abydos where women didn't have equal rights?

But before her shock could bleed into something angrier, louder, more volatile, he pulled his knees to his chest and dropped his head onto them, his breathing slow and deliberate as his arms curled tight around his legs, and she understood.

She reached out, then stopped half an inch away from his shoulder, not wanting to startle him. He must have heard, though, because he peeked an eye out and butted her hand with his head. Sam matched her breathing to his, smoothed back a few stray strands of his hair, and tried not to think about whether it was worse to be invaded through her spinal cord and her thoughts or through her womb and her genes.

Sha'uri would know.

God, they had to save that woman.

"Sam?" Daniel said a minute later, his voice muffled in his knees. He didn't look up at her. "Were you...awake? When Jolinar took over. Were you still aware of everything?"

In an instant, Sam stopped breathing.

She must have stopped moving, too, because Daniel said quickly, "You don't have to answer. I shouldn't have asked."

But Sha'uri had been a prisoner for months, and she'd still had the strength to fight against Heru-ur and Apophis in whatever way was available to her. Sam had known Jolinar for a day, maybe two, and he had given his life to save hers. She was safe. Daniel's hand was trembling where it clenched on his knee.

"Not everything," Sam made herself say. Daniel lifted his head to meet her eyes, letting her hand fall from where it had rested on his shoulder. "Some of it. I think...it was different. Jolinar was used to sharing everything with his host. Even when he was trying to keep me...to shut me down, he kept communicating with me once in a while, like he'd forgotten he wasn't trying to talk to me. But there's no reason Amaunet would have wanted Sha'uri to be aware."

He stared at her for a few, long seconds. "I didn't know that," he said. "I've never...asked."

No one had asked, except Janet, and even that was gentle prodding about her general mental state. No one ever asked for more details than her report had given. "I wouldn't have wanted you to," she told him. "I'm still--like I said, a lot of it's blurry. I'm sorry, I know that doesn't answer your question. I wish I could help more."

"Don't be sorry," he said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she said. "It'll be okay. We'll find her, and we'll take care of the baby. You--"

"I can't just leave him alone," Daniel said. "He doesn't have anyone else."

"I know," she said.

"I _won't_ , Sam, and--"

"I know, Daniel. I know."

He sighed and stretched his legs back out on the floor. "Okay. Okay." He clenched his fists once, then admitted, "I can't be...objective about this. I know that. But I don't want to have to be. He doesn't need someone to be objective about him."

"I know how that feels," she said, because she'd been there before, only months ago.

He paused to think, then said, "Cassandra."

"Yeah," she said, and she had to suppress a smile as she wondered why the two of them always seemed to end up sitting in hallways and talking about the little aliens they brought back to Earth--because those two little aliens had somehow managed to blindside them both, perhaps, leaving them to see insinuations where there were none and ignore logic when it stared them in the face. "Sometimes we can't get the distance to see clearly, and we need to know our teammates can help. And me, the colonel and Teal'c...we're your team on this one. You need to know you can trust us, and you need to let _us_ know we can trust _you_."

"Of course I trust you all," Daniel said. "It's just...well, Jack said that it was a good thing it happened, yesterday, but that I'd better not do it ever again."

"That sounds...about right," Sam said, and he made a little sound of frustration.

"But that doesn't make any sense!"

"Are you sorry you did it?" she asked.

"I'm really sorry I ran off without telling any of you," he said in answer, then went on, "and sorry I endangered your team, and--"

"No, stop," she said, because she didn't have to be an expert in semantics to hear the difference in what he was saying and what she had asked, and she had no interest in rehashing every right and wrong by dancing around the point that actually mattered. "Going to Cimmeria wasn't the problem. We'd have gone ourselves, once we knew the situation. Not with you, maybe"--which was a little sobering now she knew they'd needed him to pass Thor's test--"but we would've gone to fix our mistakes. But deciding not to consult with the team... _that_ was wrong."

"I know. I knew at the time, too," he admitted. "Jack said there were...extenuating circumstances, so there wouldn't be consequences from _him_...but we haven't really talked. Yet. I think he was mad and didn't want to make a big scene in the hallway, with the baby. So we haven't really talked, and...I don't know what I should do."

"Oh," she said simply, because there wasn't a protocol that anyone understood that could explain how Daniel and Colonel O'Neill worked.

"But he doesn't trust me," Daniel confided to his shoelaces, folding his arms across his chest. "I mean, I've never been a...a team member to him, but after yesterday...he's never going to trust me, not like that. And I don't blame him, but..." He sighed. "I spent the last year trying to prove to that I could be trusted to do this job, and I think he started to believe me. And it took less than a minute to destroy that."

She shook her head. "If the colonel says he understands the circumstances, then he does--he's not one to mince words to make people feel better. But you have to remember...if you or Dr. Rothman go out with a team, you need leeway to do your jobs, yes, but you need to let us do ours, too."

"Safety comes first," he said, repeating it by rote.

Which wasn't strictly true in every case, but for _him_ it was. The rest of them had signed up knowing they might have to give their lives for their country (or world or species). What frightened her, aside from Daniel's impulsiveness, was that he understood those rules--how could he not, living on a military base--and didn't seem to get that it wasn't a matter of trust, but rather that those rules were different for him: his safety was the responsibility of the team he was with, so if he did something stupid, it was that much more dangerous for everyone.

"All of us, including you, have to figure out how things fit together," she said. "We're not used to working with a teammate who's with us specifically as a non-military member; you've probably seen the same thing with SG-2, and we've seen it with Dr. Rothman on perfectly peaceful worlds. Look, do you think Colonel O'Neill listened to me and Teal'c without question when SG-1 was first formed?"

"I don't... Yes?" Daniel guessed.

"He and Teal'c hit it off," she allowed, "but even they needed time to learn how to work with each other. And me, a scientist"-- _and a woman_ , she thought, since, although that hadn't seemed to matter much to the colonel, it mattered to a lot of people in this business. "He tried to get me off the team the first time we met."

"But you're a soldier, too. Airman, I mean. You were in a war."

"Well, he still didn't know _me_. It took a while for him to figure out where Teal'c and I both stood and how to give the right orders that were best for the team as a whole, with all our specialties and strengths and weaknesses taken into account, how to--"

"That's it, then? It's just about...orders? Obeying?" His tone made it clear what he thought of that.

"No," Sam explained. "The chain of command is not about mindless obedience. But with any team, you need to figure out where everyone fits in, and yes, sometimes that means adapting, changing certain things about the way you think and react. And you get that, I know you do. When we left the Hall of Might and had to sneak around, you listened and did what your commander said to."

"It's not the same with me as it is with you and Teal'c."

"Sure it is," she said. _Sort of_. "If we walk into an army of Jaffa, the colonel will defer to Teal'c about their tactics, not me. If the DHD malfunctions, he'll ask me what to do instead of Teal'c. Granted, you're not a permanent member, but if we have to solve a riddle based on Norse runes...I promise you, not one of us even thought to doubt you yesterday when it came to that sort of thing." He wasn't looking convinced. "Daniel, you're not expected to be a military expert."

"But that's not an excuse for what I did," he said.

"No, it's not," she agreed. "I'm glad you realize that. So don't do it again." Daniel fidgeted a little more. "If you ask me," she added, carefully, to make sure she wasn't overstepping too many bounds, "Colonel O'Neill hasn't figured out to deal with you under his command any more than you know how to deal with him as your commander, and yesterday didn't help that any. But he won't...I mean, he might be angry now, but--"

"He's not," Daniel said.

Sam paused, not knowing how to say, _Oh, yeah, he definitely is_.

"I mean," he amended, looking back at the floor, "he _is_ , I can tell, but he didn't act like it. Last night, before he went home... I thought he was going to yell at me, and...and tell me I was grounded on base forever or, or I had to leave the program or something, I don't know. But he didn't. He was _nice_. He was supposed to be angry and do _something_ to me."

"Ah," she said. Her eyes skimmed over an angry, red graze on his chin--from a staff blast gone wide on Abydos, maybe, or a stray branch on Cimmeria or being manhandled by Jaffa--and she suspected the colonel thought what had happened yesterday was punishment enough.

"He said he'd make sure we would get through this. I didn't know what to say. What am I supposed to say to that, Sam?"

She shifted a few inches to her left so that she was sitting directly across the closet from him and he couldn't avoid her gaze by looking at the wall next to her. And she avoided the question, a little bit, but she answered part of it, too, and it was only fair since avoiding things seemed to be the topic of the day. They were hiding in a closet, after all.

"I think maybe the best thing to do now is to work on figuring this out," she said. "And by 'this,' I mean Abydos, the...your baby brother, and Kheb. And we'll help you, but you and Dr. Rothman are probably the best we have for that kind of research. Okay?"

Daniel nodded and took a breath, steeling himself and looking almost pathetically relieved to be given an aim and a job to do. "Okay."

"So." Sam cleared her throat and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees the way she usually rested them on top of a desk when she was helping him with a math question. "What do you know about Kheb, or about what's supposed to be there?"

"Not much beyond what Sha'uri said," he admitted. "Maybe there's something there that can help him, or something that can protect him."

"I don't think it's somewhere the SGC has explored."

"No, probably not. We only have vague clues from old legends. Oh, but this is the interesting part: Robert learned the myth from a book on Earth, and I learned it from an old story told on Abydos. They're fairly similar, but with some very specific differences."

Differences in mythology were, unfortunately, often all they had to go on. "That's a start," she said. "What differences?"

He pulled his legs toward himself and sat up straighter, more attentive. "The legend goes that one of the gods hid at Kheb from Setesh. Robert says that in Earth mythology, Isis hid her son Horus to keep him safe from Setesh, who had poisoned him but couldn't hurt him in Kheb. Anyway, Horus later triumphed over Setesh, after Ra intervened to save Horus, which allowed them to leave Kheb and...you know, fight Setesh. You see?"

_Holy Hannah._

Sam thought she might see it a little better if he could just tell it in chronological order, with fewer relative clauses and backtrackings. _Okay--Setesh, Horus, Isis, Ra. Got it. Kind of._ "Uh...yeah. So. Horus is the same as Heru-ur, right?" she said.

"Yes, in his adult form. He's known by other names, too, including..." He raised a finger and leaned forward. "...Harsesis."

Sam felt her eyebrows shoot upward. "Whoa--hold it--"

"Wait, wait," he cut her off, shaking his finger at her as his words started to tumble over each other. "Let me finish. Now, Abydons tell that _Osiris_ was the one who hid there from Setesh, which is very interesting, because Osiris is the father of Horus in Earth mythology but also his brother, sometimes, which is what we learn on Abydos. That makes Horus the son of Ra, which Teal'c says is true of the actual Heru-ur's genealogy, and that connection could account for the confusion about what actually happened."

"So the difference is which god was hiding on Kheb, Horus or Osiris," Sam said, and tried to keep her eyes from crossing. Tried to keep from sighing in relief, too, because this was the Daniel whose excitable brain had charmed her a year ago, and this was the one who'd pushed ideas around with her in the Hall of Thor's Might yesterday. "Is it that important?"

"Yes," he said confidently, an enthusiastic gleam entering his eye. "The identities of gods in mythology can be somewhat fluid over time, because myths evolve, so it's not surprising that there are variations from planet to planet. But from what we know of the actual and mythological methods of Heru-ur the conqueror, this myth could very well follow something that really happened with particular Goa'ulds."

"I see what you're saying," she picked up. "The Goa'uld _aren't_ fluid. They're separate, physical entities, so unless they change their names, that means only one of your versions can be correct. Now, what's that you said about Harsesis being Horus?"

"It means 'Horus, son of Isis,'" Daniel said, nodding, "so, I know, on the surface, it looks like Robert's version is the obvious correct choice, because the mother of the Harsesis is trying to hide him there, like Isis hiding Horus. But I'm not so certain. That's happening _now_. The myth is based on something that happened in the past; it's not predictive of what's happening in the present or what will happen in the future."

"Unless Sha'uri or Amaunet got the idea of Kheb from something that happened in the past, with another Harsesis," she countered.

"But there are other flaws in that theory, including that the Goa'uld Horus--Heru-ur--is the son of Hathor, not Isis, so there are inconsistencies between that myth and reality already."

"And you think, because Abydos had more recent contact with the Goa'uld, their myth might be closer to the truth?"

"I would think so," he said, nodding, "but the Goa'uld are competitive, and Abydos mostly had contact with Ra, not Setesh, Osiris, or Heru-ur. I'm sure Ra's influence biased our myths, so our myths are probably more accurate in some ways and less so in others."

Sam leaned back against the wall. "Fair enough. So where does that leave us?"

Daniel bit his lip, then deflated. "It leaves us...sitting in the medical supply closet."

She stared at him for a second, then let out a laugh. He finally let a sheepish smile creep out in answer.

"I can ask Kasuf if he knows more when we go to Abydos tomorrow," he amended. "There's a lot to tell them, anyway. Everything was cut short yesterday." He looked away again, picking at his shoelaces, and gave a short, humorless exhalation that wasn't quite a laugh. "It was supposed to be simple, going back home."

It was never going to be simple. She knew that, even if Daniel had hoped it would be. Sam knew that going home after that long, when so much had changed in between, was never simple; otherwise, she might have tried it herself.

"Colonel O'Neill and I were both hoping--expecting--to be there with you when you went back," she said, almost an apology. "I wish we hadn't had to go to Washington yesterday." She wished it even more now, after that fiasco of a medal ceremony, and then felt like a horrible person for wishing it, because she'd never have found out, otherwise, about her dad. Not that she was thinking about her dad--he'd practically ordered her not to, and the good daughter followed the general's orders, right?--except she'd always had a problem obeying her dad's orders, and she sure as hell didn't want to start obeying them now.

"It's okay," he said immediately. "Teal'c was there. And when the leader of America calls for you, you can't just refuse him, right?"

Sam couldn't help but grin at his phrasing. "I guess not." Leader of America, indeed. Then again, the President must seem pretty removed to someone who only knew of him as the person who controlled essentially every regulatory decision that affected their lives at the SGC.

He hesitated, then said, "I, uh, heard about the reporter who was asking Jack about the SGC. Is that why you came back so early?"

"Yeah, that's why," she said, wondering how he'd heard, but then again, while the exact incident with Armin Selig wasn't going to be broadcast through the base, it wasn't like a reporter's death in the capital city hadn't made the news, so it couldn't remain a secret within the program. Daniel was probably not the only one who'd heard bits of it through the grapevine already.

"He died, right?" Daniel pressed. "They say a car hit him...when he started asking questions..."

"Yes, there was a car accident," she said. When he looked suspicious, she had to admit, "I know how it looks, but _we_ didn't do anything to him, Daniel." The SGC hadn't, anyway, she was sure of that, but the Pentagon was full of people in high places, and plenty of them had reasons to want to keep the Stargate under wraps. "As far as we know, it was an accident."

"You saw it happen?" he guessed.

"The colonel did, but not me. I was talking to m...uh, to someone else at the time."

Daniel cocked his head to the side to study her, making her think back to when she'd been trained to hide her thoughts when under question. It was harder, she found, when the questioner was someone she liked. "And that's why you're so upset about the medal ceremony yesterday."

"I'm not ' _so upset_ ' about anything," she protested, kicking herself mentally when he only narrowed his eyes at the inane answer. "Why would you think I'm--"

"I was in the infirmary when you went to talk to Janet yesterday," he said. "I wasn't listening," he added quickly, "but you seemed...uh...not happy."

She thought she'd been discrete when asking Janet what the average survival rate was for late-stage lymphoma, but then, she hadn't realized Daniel was lurking there next to his baby brother, either. "It's no big deal. You know, we should really--"

"Who were you talking to?" Daniel interrupted. "Is that what's bothering you?"

Sam sighed. "Just my dad. He was there to see the ceremony."

Curiosity lit his eyes again. "Your dad, the general?"

"My dad, the general."

"Weren't you glad to see him?" He frowned suddenly. "Wait, he doesn't know about the SGC. Did he say... Was he bothering you about something?"

"No," she said. Daniel watched her expectantly, a trace of concern creeping into his face. "We don't talk to each other very often," she allowed. "Seeing him yesterday"--and hearing what he had to say--"was a bit of a shock."

Daniel seemed to have heard her unspoken words, though. "Did he say something to you?" he asked again, suspiciously.

"He said lot of things," she hedged.

"Are you okay?"

"Daniel."

" _Sam_ , what's wrong?"

Later, she wouldn't have been able to say whether it was because she couldn't stand the worry in his gaze any longer, or because she couldn't stand the pressure of the secret boiling silently inside her head. She wasn't even aware of opening her mouth to speak until she heard herself say, "He told me that he has cancer."

It didn't make as much of an impact as she'd thought it would. Daniel cocked his head and said, "Cancer? Is that a...a..." He crossed his hands over each other and wiggled his fingers like they were scuttling sideways over something.

"The crab," she said, thinking of constellations and Beehive Clusters and fighting an urge to giggle, because nothing about lymphoma was remotely funny. "No. It's... Have you started reading biology?"

"Not...much yet," he said slowly, as if trying to figure out how biology, Jacob Carter, and crustaceans fit together.

Sam automatically reached to the side for a pencil, only to remember that she wasn't in her office, and she didn't really need diagrams to explain this, anyway. She found a small notepad in front of her anyway and looked up to see Daniel was on the same wavelength, pulling an ever-present pen from his pocket and offering it to her.

She flipped past the first page, which was half-filled with what she recognized as scribbled Goa'uld symbols. "People's bodies are made up of cells. Some cells have to keep dividing to keep us alive, right?" He nodded. "Usually, they only divide as much as they have to." She sketched out a surface and covered it with amorphous-looking blobs.

He squinted and turned his head, then shuffled around next to her so that they could face the diagram in the same direction. "That's really what cells look like up close? They look different in the textbook."

"Well. No. Just...just pretend." So drawing wasn't her strong suit. Amorphous blobs were perfectly fine in this context. "Now imagine one cell--or group of cells--stopped coordinating with the rest of the body and started ignoring signals, growing and dividing uncontrollably. What happens then? Think about what's limiting them."

"They would...run out of space?"

"Good! That's something you see in certain cancers." She added a messy pile of cells into her drawing, using arrows to indicate some that were breaking off. "The easiest way to understand it is that you can get a mass of cells building up, called a tumor. Tumor cells don't work properly, and they can fight the good cells for space and cause more problems. And eventually they spread and start interfering with other parts of the body, too. Cancer is a very serious disease, and it's difficult to treat for a number of reasons. Sometimes, it can be fatal."

Daniel was silent for a while, studying the sloppy sketch as if it held vital answers, and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "That's what...your father...?"

"Not exactly," she said. "My father has a...a blood disease, but the idea is similar."

"And it can be treated?"

"Yes, but like I said," she reminded him, "treatment is complicated and not always effective."

"So...your father's..." he said, and stopped.

_...dying_ , he didn't say, but they both heard it, and the protective shield of clinical explanations started to crack. "No, _cancer_ doesn't mean _death_ ," Sam said firmly. "There are treatments, and chemotherapy has advanced a lot in the last several years." And Jacob Carter would never allow a battle to be lost. She hated that about him, sometimes, but it was a good thing now. It would be fine.

"Yeah," Daniel said, still watching her worriedly. "Can I...is there anything that..." He trailed off awkwardly, chewing his lip, and she felt like an idiot.

"No--" She cleared her throat. "No, I'm sorry. I came in here to check on you, and here I am, going on about..."

"Sam," he interrupted, sounding surprised and pulling back to frown sternly at her. "Of course it's okay. You can always tell me things like that." He hesitated, then asked, "Does Jack know, or Janet or Teal'c? Or the general?"

"Everyone's got plenty to worry about already," she said. At Daniel's look, she added, "No, I didn't tell them, but Janet's probably suspicious. General Hammond... My dad probably told him himself; they're good friends. And the general's got _more_ than enough to worry about."

"Everyone has something to worry about. Telling people about it doesn't necessarily make it worse." Daniel ducked his head and peeked up at her through his bangs.

She reached out to drop an arm over his shoulders. "Is that a hint?"

"Worries aren't additive. Cumulative. You should know that--you're supposed to be good at math, Captain-Doctor." Sam surprised herself with a laugh and gave him a backhanded slap on the arm. "Hey!"

"That's Captain-Doctor _ma'am_ to you, Mr. Jackson," she told him. He smiled and closed his eyes, leaned back against the shelving. She let herself think he looked almost relaxed for a moment before remembering not to fool herself--the foreseeable future wasn't shaping up to be relaxing for anyone.

"We should get ready for the Abydos briefing," he said, opening his eyes after a few minutes of companionable silence.

Sam quickly checked her watch, then assured him, "We've got fifteen minutes."

"I know there's time. But I'd like to check on Sharemes first."

Forcibly pushing down her still-present foreboding at the thought of the Harsesis, she said only, "Yeah, okay. I'll go with you." She squeezed his shoulders one more time and stood to pull him up.

Daniel's feet slowed when they approached the infirmary, and she followed his apprehensive gaze to where Colonel O'Neill was standing at the door. "I was wondering where you were," he told Daniel as they approached. Daniel shot an alarmed look toward the Harsesis, but the colonel assured him, "He's fine. Sleeping like a...baby."

She almost expected Daniel to say something like ' _that's because he is a baby, Jack_ ,' but he fiddled a little with his jacket sleeve instead, glancing up at O'Neill before looking away and nodding. "I'm just going to..." he said, jerking a thumb toward the Harsesis.

"Right," the colonel said, then reminded him, "Briefing room in fifteen, and then come back here afterward. Dr. Fraiser wants to talk to you about antihistamines."

"About what?" Daniel asked.

"Antihistamines. They're for allergies."

"I know what they are, but--"

"I told her you were sneezing on Cimmeria," the colonel said. "You want to avoid that next time. And it'll be good when Colorado pollen hits you on Earth, too."

Daniel dropped his gaze again. "Yes, sir," he said. He hesitated, lingering for a second as if to speak, then hurried away to the baby's side before the colonel could do more than frown and plunge his hands into his pockets with a sigh.

Sam waited outside with the colonel while Daniel leaned over the bed serving as the Harsesis' makeshift crib, a hand hovering over the tiny body but not quite touching. Alerted to his presence anyway, the baby stirred, and Daniel bent low to whisper something she couldn't hear and probably wouldn't have understood even if she could.

"He okay?" Colonel O'Neill asked her quietly.

"I think it would help if you talked to him, sir," she answered, which she couldn't not say, though it was the most leeway she would allow herself. O'Neill gave her a strange look but nodded, still frowning.

When Daniel was done hovering anxiously over the baby and was finally reassured that his brief time away hadn't caused disaster to strike, he followed Colonel O'Neill out of the infirmary, staying back hesitantly. Sam lingered near the doorway as they headed toward the briefing room, but she saw when O'Neill realized Daniel was several steps behind, rolled his eyes, and pulled Daniel forward to shepherd him out of sight, watching his back even when they were safe and at home.

Before she went that way, too, Sam ducked back into the infirmary and looked directly at the face of the Harsesis for the first time.

Immediately, she knew why Daniel had asked her if she'd ever really looked at the baby. And immediately, she almost wished she hadn't, because Sharemes didn't have to be breathtakingly beautiful; he was breathtakingly _human_ , just a baby boy without a mother or father, and his innocently slumbering face was going to make objectivity pretty hard.


	9. Kin

**_19 August 1998; Nagada, Abydos; 1400 hrs_ **

Daniel looked up at the quiet sound of footsteps crunching on loose soil outside. He poked his head out and looked down at the ground where Jack was looking up, turning in a circle and clearly confused about where he was and where to go. "Here, Jack, this way," he called down, pointing to the correct ramp that would lead him up.

"So this is your house?" Jack asked, making his way up the ramp and across the hanging crosswalk that connected the upper level of one building with another. He pushed aside the curtain in the doorway and leaned against the mud brick entrance just as Daniel finished tucking his father's dusty, slightly bent glasses into his own glasses case and stuffed them into his pack.

"My house," Daniel repeated, partly in confirmation and partly to hear the words. He thought of his room at the SGC as ' _his room_ ,' but never had anything been ' _his house_ ' before, not without being someone else's first and foremost. Jack had been trying to make his house Daniel's as much as his own, sharing space and chores when they were both there; it still felt a little like Jack's house that he often visited to spend the night or the weekend, though, and it didn't help that they weren't often free to leave base at the same time.

This space up here was where he'd lived, true, but it felt somehow less familiar than even Jack's house, empty as it was of the two people who had made it their home for fifteen years. It was his house, perhaps, but not his home.

"How are you afraid of heights?" Jack said, leaning over the railing of the crosswalk to look at the ground below them.

"What?" Daniel said.

"I mean, in the Hall of Thor's Might..."

Daniel blushed a little at how everyone had been braver than he'd been, but said in his own defense, "That beam was barely wide enough for a foot to stand on it. And it was a _lot_ higher than this building." It had looked that way, anyhow.

"Point," Jack conceded. "Need help with anything?"

Daniel shook his head, putting down a bag full of books and carefully lifting a small statue from the handmade shelf and turning it over in his hands.

Odd that he thought of the shelf specifically as 'handmade.' Only a year ago, 'handmade' had been the only possibility, and the furniture of Earth had seemed foreign exactly because everything had been made with machines that made Abydonian machines look primitive.

"What's with the bird?" Jack asked, peering at the little statue from where he still stood outside.

"It's a representation of Ra, with the head of a falcon," Daniel said.

"I thought the falcon was Heru-ur."

"It is, but it's associated with the sun and other deities as well. That's why both Ra and Heru-ur were protected by Horus Guards," he answered, squinting at the top of the clay figure. He huffed and shook his head, holding it up for Jack to see. "My mother made this. It was one of her favorites."

"Your...mother," Jack repeated. "Made a statue of Ra. This is the Ra that she helped _kill_?"

"I never understood it before," Daniel admitted, "but now...look, look at the head. I always thought he was wearing a...a simplified pharaoh's crown with the sun disk on top, but I can see it now--it's actually Earth's point of origin on the Stargate."

Jack raised his eyebrows and leaned closer to look. "Cool," he said, looking honestly amused. "That's clever."

Its proportions weren't quite right, but it was unmistakably the glyph of the Tau'ri. At least, it was unmistakable to him now that he'd seen the glyph so often, though he'd never noticed before. How very much like his mother to sculpt a figurine that would seem unremarkable among the people and culture here for years to come but was actually a parody of the tyrant god, a private joke to those who remembered and knew the truth. Her effigy of Ra would be forever forced to wear the symbol of those who had defeated him.

"She must've liked art, huh," Jack commented, still standing in the doorway, glancing around at the other statuettes that stood at intervals around the house.

Daniel smiled, remembering the concentration on his mother's face as she kneaded and cut and pressed a ball of clay into shape. His father had tried but had never become as skilled, not with clay. Sha'uri hadn't been very interested in sculpting but had often joined Claire to chat and exchange town gossip. Skaara and Daniel had had competitions to see who could manage to sneak in and steal one of the women's sculpting tools without being caught.

"Yes, she did. She said art was what initially drew her to artifacts of other cultures and then to archaeology." And then to Melburn Jackson, and, from there, to their home on Abydos. Ironic, then, that now it was Daniel's attempt to carry on their work that was drawing him away.

"She was good at it, too," Jack said, nodding at the statue. "That doesn't look easy. So, ah...can I come in, or should I...?"

Glancing up in surprise, Daniel said, "Of course. Uh, come in."

The Tau'ri kept their doors closed and locked all the time. He did that now, too, with his own room on base and with Jack's front door, but he had forgotten that habit as soon as he'd stepped into Nagada. The important buildings here had wooden doors, and the entire town was surrounded by a sturdy, wooden gate to protect them from sandstorms, but heavy cloth served that purpose well enough for most places, and wood was too difficult to obtain and work and maintain in large enough quantities for everyone's house to have a barricade. The part of him that had grown used to the SGC worried reflexively about security, and the part of him that was still fiercely Abydonian hoped it would never have cause to change.

Jack stepped further into the small living area, looking around curiously. "Are you taking everything here back to Earth?"

"Not everything." Daniel picked up a dusty length of cloth in the corner--his father's robes--and wrapped it around his mother's clay statue, placing the cushioned bundle gently in his pack on top of the books. Then Jack shoved the tac vest Daniel had set aside into his face until he took it and put it back on over his shirt.

"You can bring whatever you'd like," Jack said. "SG-3's going back home with us--I can make the jarheads help you carry stuff."

The Jacksons' house was smaller than most, but it was also more private. It had originally been the upper level of another home that someone had been kind enough to share after the Rebellion; The lower level had been abandoned a few years ago, the daughter married into another house and the elderly father laid to rest, but no one had taken that house since, and the Jacksons hadn't needed the extra space. There weren't many important things that Daniel could take with him.

Also, Daniel could imagine the look on Colonel Makepeace's face if he and his team were told to act as beasts of burden. "No, Jack, carrying things isn't the issue. Kasuf wouldn't let anyone touch this place before, but from now on, it'll be used by as something like a schoolhouse. We used it for lessons before, anyway, so I'm leaving most of the texts here for them to use."

Jack looked skeptically at the pack at Daniel's feet. "You're leaving... _most_ of them. Really."

Daniel gestured at the walls, pulling back a curtain that had been hung over the shelves of books to protect them from sand and weather. "Yes, Jack. Really."

"Whoa. I _know_ there weren't that many when we came here the first time," Jack said, idly picking out a large textbook and weighing it in his hand before scanning the title.

"We had fifteen years to write and record things," he pointed out. "That's why--Jack, give me..." Daniel took the book away from him and put it back in its place.

Jack peered curiously at the mix of bound books and rolled scrolls that lined the walls. "That one was English."

"All the textbooks and dictionaries from Earth are staying here. If I ever need one of them...well, I'll be on Earth. Seinah has taken charge, and she and some of the others can read English well enough to tutor younger children, but they need something to read and tutor _from_. The older students are familiar with the kinds of lessons we used to hold here."

"Seinah? Friend of yours?" Jack asked.

Daniel shrugged. "I know her. She's from Skaara's age set and used to come here to study with my parents."

"Ah." Jack's eyes drifted to his pack. "So what's all that?"

He lifted it onto his back a little self-consciously. "Just personal...things I didn't want to leave behind." Journals, mostly, but there were some small trinkets here and there, too, that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else, anyway. He stepped out of his parents' last home, then turned and looked back at Jack, who still stood inside. "I'm finished here. Is everyone still in Kasuf's house?"

"Yeah, just chatting. They'll head over to the 'gate room soon," Jack said, "but take your time; I'll walk you back when you're ready. You have as long as you need."

Daniel's first thought was that he'd taken his time two days ago, visiting his parents' grave, lingering in the sun, and it had given Heru-ur his window to attack.

"What did you and Kasuf talk about after I left?" Daniel asked. They had explained everything to Kasuf, but while he had seemed accepting and had asked to return to the SGC with them to meet General Hammond, Daniel had had a hard time meeting the elder's eyes. He'd barely finished getting out the story of how they'd lost Sha'uri before the elder had shooed him toward his old house to take care of a few last things; Daniel had been hard-pressed not to show his relief. "Is he angry?"

"No. Well, yes," Jack said, then quickly finished, "but not at you. He's upset about his daughter, obviously, and he's mad at the Goa'uld. Tobay already explained about meeting Heru-ur here, and he's not really surprised about what happened afterward on Cimmeria. He's glad his grandson is safe, Daniel."

Daniel grimaced. "And about keeping him on Earth until we find Kheb?"

Jack hesitated, then said, "Kasuf knows it's not safe to bring the Harsesis here until we know more. And he trusts you."

But Jack didn't. The debriefing after Cimmeria had made that abundantly clear.

To be fair, it was more that Jack didn't trust that Sha'uri had actually been in control when she'd begged them to take her son to some place they'd never heard of, added to the fact that they had no clue where it was, how to start looking for it, or what they would find there. They'd all heard Sha'uri's plea, though, and the general was willing to give Daniel and Robert time to do more research on Kheb, so Jack hadn't argued about it too hard so far.

"Actually," Jack said, "come back in here for a minute--you need to... There's something else he told us."

"What's wrong?" Daniel said apprehensively, recognizing the unhappy but hard look on the older man's face.

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a gray, metallic ball that looked slightly crushed on one side. "Do you recognize what this is?" Daniel took the ball from him, feeling like it was familiar for some reason, but he couldn't quite place it and shook his head. "It's a device that the Goa'uld use for long-range communications."

"I saw something like this on Apophis's _hatak_ ," Daniel realized. "It was bigger, but I think he was using it to communicate with Klorel and their Jaffa."

"Well, apparently these are like...like the handheld radio of Goa'uld communications systems," Jack said. He made a face. "Kasuf had this one."

Daniel looked up, shocked. " _What?_ But that's impossible."

"He wasn't hiding it or anything," Jack said quickly. "He handed it right over to us and asked if we knew what it was. Apparently, he saw his daughter using it once, right after Apophis first returned her here."

"No," Daniel denied, staring at the ball. Like a handheld radio, it would be good for private communications. Or for spying. " _Jack_."

"He also saw her smash it herself, a week or so after that," Jack said. "According to Teal'c, she told you guys that Amaunet was still a little in control when she was first dropped here. Right?" Daniel didn't answer. Jack took that for the affirmation it was. "So. Maybe Amaunet used it to contact Apophis once or twice."

"No," he insisted again, but more unsteady now. "But...she--"

"Apophis came through the Stargate two days ago," Jack interrupted. "Sha'uri wasn't here last year when I told Tobay how long to keep it buried, but somehow, Apophis knew. The only way he could've found out was if he'd been in contact with someone here, on Abydos, at some point over the last year. And Teal'c says these tele-ball dealies aren't secure, so if Heru-ur was eavesdropping on Apophis's conversations...that might be how _he_ knew, too."

"It could've been--"

"And you have to have Goa'uld-levels of naquadah in the blood to use these things. Carter thinks she might be able to engineer one to respond to regular humans, but...well..."

"But not without a level of technology that we don't have here on Abydos," Daniel finished.

Jack nodded. "Only Amaunet could have leaked it to Apophis. There's no one else."

_Sha'uri._ Daniel took a breath. Let it out. "Oh."

"Now," Jack continued, "this is what we're thinking. Amaunet used it. And then, your sister found out what was going on and took it and made sure it wouldn't be used again."

"Maybe," Daniel said, still staring at the communication device, at the way part of the surface was caved in. Someone had thrown this very hard, or hit it very hard, or...or done something Sha'uri never would have approved of normally. Sha'uri was gentle--not docile, but her weapon was her tongue and her mind, not her arm. How terrified had she been, then, or how angry, how _hurt_? "So, you're saying...that means..."

"That means we're not suspicious about anyone here. We already knew Amaunet was an enemy, and we're not pointing fingers to find new ones. That's a good thing."

"Okay," Daniel said numbly.

"But."

"Jack, don't..."

"But," Jack pressed, "it also means that we can't be sure who was talking to us on Cimmeria."

"It was Sha'uri," Daniel said. Jack didn't answer. "Jack. It was my sister. She was...you don't know her. She's...she's _stronger_ than Amaunet. And that was her son, okay, she was talking about her son, and what she wants us to do to keep him safe, so if there was ever a time when she'd find a way to win over Amaunet..."

"That was Amaunet's son, too," Jack said.

Daniel turned away and pinched the bridge of his nose, not moving until the doubt went away. When he turned back, Jack was watching him. "I'm not going to stop looking for Kheb."

"Yeah," Jack said. "I know. I'm not asking you to, and I'm not saying you're wrong, because maybe you're not. Just...we have to consider the possibility."

He nodded, pushing the ball back toward Jack. He didn't want it. "Can we go? Please?"

"In a minute," Jack said, and Daniel wanted to leave _right now_ just as much as he wanted never to leave. "Put down your pack and...and listen for a minute, okay? We've gotta talk."

Something plummeted in the vicinity of Daniel's stomach. He sat down on the dusty pallet of his old, long-unused bed, knowing that it put him in the position of looking up at Jack, but it was deliberate, because this was the reprimand he was supposed to have gotten yesterday, and he wasn't fighting for dominance now.

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it, plunged his hands into his pockets, and stared at him. Daniel tried not to look away, but he ended up with nowhere else to look but to stare back, until he couldn't stand it anymore and blurted, "Jack, just say it."

"I'm thinking," Jack snapped, pulling his hands out and taking off his hat, only to bend it twice between his hands and put it back on again. "All right, stand up. I'm not doing this looking down at you."

Confused, Daniel let his backpack slide gently off his shoulders and stood.

"Daniel, I don't want you being..." Jack waved a hand in a way that told Daniel nothing at all. "No, wait, start over. You freaked us the hell out last time we were here."

"Habit," Daniel heard himself say, then blinked, not really sure where that had come from.

Jack snorted. "Yeah, well, that kind of thing hasn't always been...exactly...your fault, but you had a choice this time. There is no excuse for doing that to us or to yourself, and I don't want it happening again, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"And _stop_ that, dammit. The 'sir'-ing. You're not one of my soldiers." Daniel chewed his lower lip. Jack sighed. "I don't _want_ you to be one of my soldiers. Okay?"

"Oh. Good," Daniel said, relieved, because he'd been afraid Jack might change his mind about that after he'd shown last time how much he _wasn't_ a soldier. It was part of any societal etiquette, the way a person was addressed, and maybe it helped to remind him about listening when he needed to bow to others' expertise, but Jack was his friend first and Colonel O'Neill second, not the other way around like he was to Sam, so he could say 'sir' and it wouldn't mean the same thing that it did when she said it.

"Unless we're in a...something like Cimmeria again," Jack added. "Or, you know. Sometimes I need you to listen and do what I say."

"I understand," Daniel said, which was strange, because he thought he did even though he had a feeling he and Jack wouldn't always agree on what those times would be. When it was necessary, though, there was no one he trusted to give him orders more than the members of SG-1.

"Yeah," Jack said, his eyes narrowing like he was searching for words. "You know, I've learned to trust you, Daniel."

"But...?"

"There's no 'but,'" Jack said, exasperated. "We trust your...your instincts or whatever it is that comes out of your head. You should've trusted _us_ with it instead of forcing us into it."

Daniel nodded. He was still pretty sure he'd been doing the right thing in going to Cimmeria, ultimately, but he was starting to realize that there were other ways he could have gone about it.

Jack scratched his head. "That said, people've done worse things. I wouldn't've done the same things you did, and you did one hell of a job once we actually got to Cimmeria, all right? Did a lot better than I hoped you'd have to learn, actually. But you went about it the wrong way, and I need you to understand that there's no excuse for it."

"I'm sorry," Daniel said.

"I'm not looking for 'sorry,'" Jack told him.

"I didn't mean to scare you or put you in danger."

"Well, just try not to do it so much. Look, I get it, the customs are...whatever. It's just, in the US, people your age aren't even allowed to drive."

Daniel furrowed his brow, confused. "What customs are what? And I'm not trying to...drive...you mean cars?"

"That's not what I'm...I mean, you shouldn't even..." Jack grimaced. "Okay. I'm just saying, we've put a lot of stuff on your plate, and you've taken it. You just...need to..."

"Let someone else drive?" Daniel suggested, fairly sure there hadn't originally been a metaphor intended, but Jack looked relieved.

"Exactly. Maybe Rothman puts you in charge of people studying Goa'uld back on base, but in the field, you're not the commander. You can be the...backseat driver for your commander, but the...the keys should...stay..." He trailed off, a hand still in the air like he was in the middle of some gesture that he'd aborted halfway through. "Ah, never mind."

"I get it," Daniel assured him.

"Really?"

"I think so. Pay more attention to my commander?"

Jack sucked in a breath and puffed out his cheeks, then let it out. "That's not exactly...yeah, okay."

"That's not it?" Daniel asked.

"It's...close enough. You don't take command in the field, at least not with stuff like this; you _advise_ your commander and then do what he decides, or the team falls apart."

"Okay," Daniel said. It wasn't a difficult concept; it was just hard to adhere to sometimes.

"Good," Jack said.

"You're not mad at me?" Daniel blurted.

Jack stared at him again without answering for a while. "You're a maddening person," he finally said.

Taken aback, Daniel frowned. "Oh. Well...so are you," he said, thinking it was childish but unable to think of a better response.

"Yeah, well," Jack said, and failed to finish yet another sentence. "My other point is, maybe you're not used to this team deal, but whether we're on base or off-world, you have people you can count on. I know you're planning on looking after the Harsesis on top of everything else, and, take it from me, that's not gonna be easy. So. You got us." Daniel nodded, but before he could speak, Jack cleared his throat and said, "And you have hand-to-hand with me and Carter tomorrow at 1400."

"Really?"

"You think you're off the hook from training because you skipped off in the middle of a mission?"

He knew, though, that being told to report for training meant he was still being trained, a reminder that some things were remaining normal. "Thank you. I'll remember."

"Also, Teal'c took your spare backpack and filled it with rocks," Jack said. "He said something about ladders. I didn't ask, but...you're warned." Daniel suppressed a groan and only nodded--Teal'c's idea of training had been steadily increasing in difficulty as he learned that a few sore muscles wouldn't break a human. "So...you're sure you don't need any more time here?"

"I'm sure," Daniel said, moving now toward the doorway and lingering to run a hand over the stone before he stepped out onto the crosswalk.

"You'll have chances to come back," Jack said.

"I know."

Jack reached an arm toward him, paused, then pulled it back, opting to rest his hands on his gun instead. Daniel was grateful to be allowed to walk out of Nagada next to the man, instead of being ushered out, but he moved a step closer nonetheless as they made their way down the ramp and into the narrow street.

Whispering followed them, but, unlike the last time he'd come--two days ago; had it really been only two days?--the people knew what was going on this time, and he had had time to say his farewells. No one stopped them, but a young woman stepped out of the crowd.

" _Seinah_ ," Daniel greeted, inclining his head slightly in the polite respect afforded to someone several years his elder but a peer in their shared occupation as scholars. " _I wish you well, until we see one another again._ "

Seinah returned the greeting, answering deliberately in careful English. "And you, Dan'yel. Perhaps we can study together when you will return."

Thinking of the stretches of caves and all the structures that were still left unexplored--there was an entire planet of repressed culture and hidden, ancient knowledge, after all--he replied, "I would like that." Maybe General Hammond would approve a mission to Abydos sometime, for an archaeological survey, and Robert would bring him along. He could hope. "I hope Skaara will be with me next time."

She dropped her eyes for barely a second before raising them again. "We would want you to..." She hesitated, unsure of the word, then said simply, "I am certain he will ask you to _sha'loki_ , but perhaps I may ask you for him, in his absence?"

"Of course, when he returns," he answered immediately, gratified to see her brighten wistfully. "I would be honored."

Seinah turned to Jack, then, bowing lower. "We are grateful for your people's help, O'Neill. _Colonel_ O'Neill."

"No problem," Jack answered. "We're glad to have Abydos on our side."

She moved back, and, as they stepped out into the uninhabited desert, Jack commented, "Your friend is a pretty girl."

"Mm-hm," Daniel agreed absently, turning around for a last glimpse of the town through the gates.

"You two used to...ah... _study_ together a lot?"

"Sure, when she came to Nagada. Seinah is from the mountains of Kalima, and we have strong relations with them for trading purposes. Why?"

Jack snorted in amusement. "Never mind. Guess not."

Daniel shrugged, feigning ignorance of the teasing innuendo to avoid having to explain that Seinah had been almost betrothed to Skaara before Apophis's attack.

XXXXX

**_19 August 1998; SGC, Earth; 1800 hrs_ **

In the end, both Kasuf and Tobay went through to the SGC. It wasn't difficult to convince them to agree to keep the Stargate open and allow SG personnel to establish better protective measures. Kasuf still remembered the days before the first-aid supplies and basic technologies from the 1982 mission had been depleted, and if Tobay had been too young to have more than a vague recollection, his faith in the Tau'ri had not been shaken so far.

There were other issues, however, and details that Daniel hadn't realized a negotiation would entail, so he was happy to let the general and Kasuf lead the discussion, serving simply as translator and bridge between them.

First was the question of whether the SGC was dealing with Nagada or Abydos.

Kasuf had pointed out that the SGC was represented at this table by one team--SG-1, the flagship team--one general, and one physician; they could not speak for all of Earth. While Kasuf led the council of all the elders on Abydos, and although Nagada was the central town of Abydos, their dealings so far had been with Nagada alone, and Kasuf could not decide for the rest without speaking to them first. Moreover, the Stargate and the naquadah mine, the two foci of their agreement, were both within Nagada's limits.

"Perhaps," Daniel suggested, "current activities can be restricted to Nagada, but there's no reason that can't be extended or renegotiated later if other settlements express an interest."

"And then," Kasuf agreed, "Earth may speak with the _seshmit_ of that town."

"Their leader," Daniel clarified.

"That sounds reasonable," General Hammond said. "What we offer in terms of defensive technology really only applies to the Stargate, at least for now, which is in your territory, Kasuf. Frankly, we don't know very much about towns outside of Nagada, but I'd be open to the possibility of further relations."

" _What of the men who remain in Nagada now?_ " Tobay asked, his eyes flicking to Daniel to translate.

"We'll station a unit at the Stargate until the iris is functional," General Hammond said. "SG-8 will be sent to Abydos later today to begin installation, so we'll withdraw our security force within a few days, once everyone's clear on how the iris operates. SG-6 will oversee the mining operation, so they'll stay around longer, if you don't mind."

"The mine is outside Nagada proper, General," Daniel said. "Elder Kasuf says he would prefer that the operation remain outside the walls, but the men themselves are welcome within the village. There's an empty residence below my old house where SGC personnel can take shelter at night, and enough people there speak both languages that communication should not be difficult."

"We will interfere with your daily lives as little as possible," the general confirmed to Kasuf.

"Our medic on SG-8 would like to speak with your physicians," Janet said, speaking for the first time. "Daniel tells us some of our medical technology may be of benefit to your people, and we are always trying to improve our medical capabilities, as well."

There followed a discussion about medical aid and an exchange of knowledge, and Daniel discovered to his chagrin how many words there were in English without Abydonian counterparts and how difficult it was to explain an Abydonian disease or practice to Janet, especially when he didn't have the medical expertise to know exactly what he was trying to explain.

Eventually, the fine details were straightened out as far as they could be, and there was one thing left to discuss.

"What of my son?" Kasuf asked.

Jack frowned. "Ah...well, Skaara is--"

"He means the son of Sha'uri, yes?" Daniel interrupted. When Kasuf confirmed, he made a mental note that part of the cultural briefing for new SG teams and translators should include a reminder that kinship terms were different everywhere. Sharemes was a son to Kasuf, and if Daniel wanted to call him 'son,' as well, many on Abydos would think nothing of it, though the Tau'ri might find it strange. He'd find it strange himself, in this tongue, so 'brother' would suffice.

"Right," Jack said. "Your daughter told us not to bring him to Abydos. Some Goa'uld may still look for him there, and it'd be harder to protect him."

"This is true," Kasuf said. "But remember that he is not your child or your tool. I thank you your help, but I leave the boy here in the care of Dan'yel, not to Earth."

"Elder," Daniel said quickly, "the people here are good, and I don't know how to care for a baby."

"We will ensure the baby's care," Janet said. "That's not in question."

"But as part of the war..." Sam said, then trailed off with a glance in his direction.

Daniel thought of how many people would like to conduct tests on someone who knew anything at all about the Goa'uld, baby or not. Daniel himself and everyone else in the SGC would be happy to learn anything they could about the Goa'uld, too, for that matter. "If we learn that he can be helpful to our side in the war, we shouldn't ignore that," he said. "But we also need to remember that he's a human child first. He has rights just as any other."

The general met Daniel's eyes, then said, "You, Kasuf, will of course have final say in all decisions regarding what happens to the boy. Mr. Jackson can stand in as your agent in those matters, especially concerning the war with the Goa'uld, as long as he operates within the regulations of the SGC. For all medical purposes, Mr. Jackson will be considered next of kin while the Harsesis child is on Earth." The general turned to him, asking, "You agree?"

Daniel swallowed the last of his apprehension, said, "Yes, sir," and inclined his head to Kasuf in acceptance as well.

"If that's settled," the general said, "would you like to see your grandson, Kasuf?"

As Tobay waited in the embarkation room, Janet led the way through the halls of the SGC and to the door of the infirmary. "Right in here, sir," she said, gesturing inside. "I'll be in my office if you need anything." Daniel stepped in first, letting Kasuf finish looking around the complex in fascination before following.

" _This is where the physicians work?_ " Kasuf asked. " _What are all these machines?_ "

" _Yes, it is, and these are tools that they use to...to detect and treat illnesses and injuries,_ " Daniel answered, moving past the beds in the main part of the infirmary and into the side room where Sharemes stayed. " _In here, the physicians, their assistants, and I have all been watching over the baby. Please._ "

Kasuf nodded once, then moved toward Sharemes's sleeping form. A nurse looked up at their approach, then returned to reading something on her desk when she saw who they were.

Kasuf seemed as mesmerized by the infant as Daniel himself had been--and still was, much of the time--and didn't take his eyes from Sharemes for several long moments. Finally, he reached down to touch the thin tuft of dark hair already beginning to sprout on the newborn scalp.

Immediately, the baby stirred and whimpered, his tiny forehead wrinkling and his eyes screwing tight. Recognizing the signs now after a day of anxious watching, Daniel hurriedly scooped the infant into his arms as the whimpers became distressed cries. " _Sharemes_ ," he whispered into his baby brother's ear, hoping to stave off the storm of wailing that had become commonplace in this part of the infirmary over the last day. " _Kasuf has come to see you, little brother. Shh, don't cry._ "

Miraculously, Sharemes quieted for once, so Daniel lowered his arms enough for Kasuf to see.

" _Sharemes_ ," Kasuf repeated slowly, an odd look passing over his face.

Daniel felt heat rise to his face in embarrassment, even as he tried to push back the pain of loss that the baby's dark eyes never failed to raise in him. " _It was not my place, Elder, but the people here...well, their customs are different. I did not want him to remain nameless._ "

" _Thank you, Dan'yel. It is a good name_ ," the elder said, then tentatively held out his arms. Daniel carefully passed the baby over to him. Sharemes's eyes drifted open to fix on Kasuf, who pressed his lips together for a moment to stop them from trembling. " _He is...a beautiful child_. _As beautiful as his mother._ "

Daniel could only nod in agreement.

" _I will give him his beautiful name_ ," Kasuf continued. " _My daughter hoped one day to bear a child who would bring light and joy upon her family. Perhaps, in these dark times, that is what we most need. I will call her child Shifu._ "

The baby's lips lifted in a smile. Not really a smile; the nurse said that movements like that weren't true smiles, not yet, but it looked so happy that Daniel couldn't help smiling back. " _Shifu,_ " he said, rolling the word over his tongue. " _I have heard traders from the Djon'go village use that word, yes?_ "

" _It is an ancient word. I do not know whether it is from this planet or ours. It means 'enlightenment.' 'Light.''_ "

" _Light._ Shifu," Daniel repeated, stroking a finger down the baby's soft cheek. Shifu wriggled in Kasuf's arms, one hand flailing about and finally curling around Daniel's finger.

Kasuf sighed. " _It seems he wishes to remain here, as well. You are certain of this place called Kheb, that something there can help him?_ "

" _It is what Sha'uri told us_ ," Daniel said in answer. " _I hoped you might know of it somehow._ "

" _I know only the same stories that you know_ ," Kasuf said, though.

Daniel hadn't expected an easy answer, but he had to hide his disappointment, anyway. " _The Tau'ri have other allies--perhaps one of them has heard of it_ ," he assured Kasuf, even though some of those other allies, like the Nox and the Asgard, didn't talk to them, while others, like Bra'tac, couldn't contact them for fear of revealing himself. " _If we can learn something there about Shar--Shifu, something that can ensure that he is safe, I will bring him back to you._ "

Shifu squirmed again, and Kasuf reluctantly passed him back into Daniel's arms, where the baby had already spent much of the last day. Unless they found Kheb sometime soon, Daniel suspected he would be spending quite a bit of time here, trying to make sense of a baby that oscillated between disturbingly quiet and loudly inconsolable. Communication, he was learning, was much more complicated when the other party was an infant.

" _Elder, if you would like to spend the night here, I can show you to a room_ ," he offered." _General Hammond would welcome you and Tobay._ "

But Kasuf shook his head. " _I should return to our people, Dan'yel. Hammond says that he will soon send a group of men to help us bury the chaapa'ai again._ "

" _Not to bury it_ ," Daniel said quickly, because that thought was unbearable. " _Simply a protective shield that they will build. SG-8 will show Tobay and the other Guards how it works, but no one will be able to reach Abydos through the chaapa'ai again against your wishes._ "

" _Then the mineral mines--_ "

" _They will try not to disturb you_ ," Daniel promised, knowing that Kasuf didn't care about the naquadah, as such, but also knowing that the mines had played such an important part of their history of slavery that there would, of course, be some who were unhappy to have anything to do with it. " _The Tau'ri have ways of extracting the mineral more easily than Nagadans did in Ra's service, so you need not fear that our people will be forced to work there again. You have the communicator, yes? If anything is wrong, you or Tobay can contact General Hammond through the chaapa'ai._ "

Kasuf nodded but didn't make a move to leave. " _You will return to us, Dan'yel?_ "

" _I must first help my teacher here, so we can find Kheb. I promise to keep Shifu safe. I will return to Abydos when we know more._ " He adjusted Shifu's weight in his arms. " _With hope, one day we will bring Sha'uri and Skaara back to you, as well as the child._ "

" _We will feel safer, knowing that one of our people is ensuring the Tau'ri do not forget us._ " He glanced once more at the again-docile infant. " _Dan'yel...we understand my children are used by demons. But...please, ask the people here not to hurt them._ "

Daniel opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted when Shifu let out a loud whine. He shifted the baby again until he settled once more in the crook of Daniel's arm. " _They already know, Elder. The people who search for them are...are like..._ " He cast about for a word that could adequately describe people like Jack and Teal'c and Sam, then settled on the closest word of kinship that he had in this tongue. " _They have become like brothers and sisters to me, and they were chosen from the best warriors and scholars in this nation. I know they will do everything they can. I will do everything that I can, I promise._ "

" _That is enough for me_ ," Kasuf said, patting him on the arm. " _Now, will you come with me to the chaapa'ai? Tobay will want to bid you farewell before we leave._ " Daniel nodded and tried to put down his baby brother, only to stop when Shifu began to whimper again. " _Bring him with you. Tobay would look on the son of Sha'uri, as well._ "

Tobay grinned when Daniel entered the 'gate room with Kasuf, Shifu in his arms. He waited until Kasuf was exchanging respectful farewells with General Hammond, then leaned in close to tease, " _What a lovely wife you make, Dan'yel._ "

Daniel flushed a little but didn't bother with a retort as he held the baby out for Tobay to see. " _Tobay, this is Sharemes, known as Shifu._ " A flicker of Tobay's eyes was all he needed to know that Tobay saw Sha'uri, as well, in the baby's features. " _The Tau'ri will shelter him until we find him a safe haven._ "

" _Good_ ," Tobay declared, touching the baby's arm before nodding. " _Keep him safe. This new world of yours is an strange place, brother._ "

Daniel paused at that, trying to decide whether there was an accusation hidden in there, but before he could answer, Kasuf called, " _Dan'yel, we must return to Abydos now._ "

He dropped his gaze from Tobay and bowed carefully with baby Shifu. " _Safe journey, Elder._ "

The general nodded. "We'll keep in touch, Kasuf." His tone softened, and he added, "Best of luck with everything on Abydos. We'll let you know the moment we learn anything about your children."

When the event horizon was shimmering in the stone ring, Kasuf and Tobay turned back once more. "Good-bye," Tobay said in English.

Daniel stood tall, because an Abydon was proud of who he was and what he did, hugging Shifu close to his chest as they disappeared into the wormhole. "Good-bye."

The wormhole disengaged.

"Mr. Jackson."

Daniel turned slowly and saw General Hammond watching him. "Sir?"

"I don't have a problem with you bringing the little one out of the infirmary," the general said, "but SG-8 is shipping out in a few minutes. You know the safe parts of this base."

"Yes, sir."

Once they were out of the embarkation room, General Hammond said, "I need to see you in my office. Go put your brother down in the infirmary and join me."

Daniel swallowed nervously but nodded and hurried to the elevator to leave Shifu in Janet and the nurses' care.

"General?" he asked when he returned and stepped in.

General Hammond looked at him very seriously from behind his desk. "Shut the door."

Quietly, Daniel obeyed and stood inside the room until the general began.

"I told you before that you'd have until now to show you could do this job. When you went to Cimmeria two days ago, you endangered yourself and three other members of this command. Do you understand that, Mr. Jackson? Do you understand what the consequences of your actions could have been?"

"Sir. Yes. I wasn't..." He bit back a protest, because it wasn't an excuse, and he knew it. "Yes, sir. I understand."

"I want you to say it."

"They could have been killed," Daniel said, the horror of that still not completely done sinking in, because as careless as he'd been, he _hadn't_ been thinking of the danger to SG-1 when he'd led them to Cimmeria. "We all could have been. I could have gotten them killed if something had gone wrong."

The general nodded seriously. "All of you could have died. Then again...this was an exceptional circumstance. I have family and grandchildren of my own. I understand the 'why' of what you did and what it meant to you, and we managed to achieve a significant victory as a result. But if it happens again, I won't accept any excuses for misconduct."

"I understand," Daniel said again.

"Now," General Hammond said, "you're not the only person under my command who's made mistakes, especially in personal situations. But, considering your history and background, I think it's safe to say that it's more likely for you than for most that you'll stumble on something off-world that could be construed as personal. It's a concern my superiors had when I spoke to them on your behalf--that, your age aside, you were at the SGC for personal reasons and might not be able to remain objective."

Daniel waited for him to go on, knowing there had to be more.

General Hammond folded his hands on his desk. "For now, you'll go to Abydos if the teams there need help, but you're grounded from anything else off-world. That includes simple research missions. If I'm convinced you can put feelings aside in difficult situations, I'll reevaluate that. On base, you'll continue to do what you have been, but your first job is to find out as much as you can about Kheb or anything else that relates to your brother. That's what you need to focus on."

"Yes, sir," Daniel said again. He would have requested it, anyway, because he didn't want to go off-world for days at a time and leave Shifu alone, even if there were medical professionals who would watch him, but it was different when he knew it was meant as a disciplinary measure. Still, if this was a sort of probation, that meant it was temporary, and the very roots of the word meant he still had a chance to prove himself.

"You've never given me any reason not to trust you, your loyalties, or your abilities, Mr. Jackson," General Hammond said. "But like anyone here, I need to know I can trust your judgment, too, in any situation. Aside from this incident, you've done extraordinarily well handling everything we've asked of you. But don't forget the position you're in: you have an obligation to Abydos and your family, but you have an obligation to us, too. While you're here, you work for Dr. Rothman and me. Your orders come from us and, whenever you're off-world, from your commanding officer."

"Yes, sir," Daniel said. "I won't forget. Thank you for... Thank you."

General Hammond nodded. "You'll be issued identification as an employee of the Department of the Air Force and all other pertinent documentation in the next few days. We've had records created for you saying that you're an emancipated minor from abroad doing a research internship--you understand what that means?"

"I understand. I'll study my cover in case I need it."

"Good. Your new SGC ID card will grant you access to any area of the base open to Dr. Rothman, as well as your quarters, and you will be required to carry identification on your person at all times. Do you have any questions?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, not that I can think of now."

"All right. Dismissed. And, Daniel," the general added, "you've landed in a difficult position with the Harsesis child, and I'm not insensitive to that. You have my word that we'll do everything we can to keep him safe and straighten this out."

"Yes, sir," Daniel said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: People from various nations were brought to Abydos before the Stargate was buried behind Ra. This included East Asian nations, and they settled in another town distant from Nagada. Thousands of years caused their word for "teacher" to take on the meaning of "enlightenment," in the spiritual, intellectual, and physically luminous sense. So. "Shifu" means "light" in a dialect of Abydonian.
> 
> I have no idea where the name "Shifu" actually came from. I'm assuming the writers were at the very least influenced by the Chinese word meaning, more or less, "teacher," but as for "light?" I made it Abydonian because canon!Daniel knew it, while my Googling skills are stumped. Please let me know if you know that it really does mean "light" in some language--I'd be interested to know.


	10. Cruvus, Part I

**_28 September 1998; SGC, Earth; 1600 hrs_ **

"Who knows what kind of people might be populating that planet." Pause. "Aren't you curious about the power source, sir?"

"Carter," Jack's voice answered, "when have you _ever_ known me to be curious about the power source?"

Daniel looked over to see Sam lift a bar with a grunt of effort and replace it on the pins. She sat up and accepted a towel from Jack, who had been spotting her.

" _Chal'ti, kree!_ " Teal'c barked, and he turned to see a blur flying toward him. He stumbled back and toppled to the mat, just barely able to raise his arm in time to partially stop an elbow from crushing his throat but completely unable to avoid the weight that pressed him forcefully onto the floor.

"Ow! _Yi shay_ , Teal'c."

With a deep scowl, Teal'c released him and straightened up. Daniel relaxed, shaking out his arm but not sitting up.

A laugh from nearby made Daniel turn again to see Captain Griff walking toward the lockers. "What's this? You get so lost in your head you forget about the Jaffa sitting on your chest? Only you, Jackson."

"Wasn't _sitting_ on me, Captain," Daniel protested breathlessly, with an apprehensive look at his displeased teacher. Griff snorted.

Of the members of SG-2, Warren tended to stay more aloof from the newer members, and Casey shared so many inside jokes with the two majors that Daniel and Griff had often been left at a loss for what was going on in the first missions. They were all good men, and when Ferretti gave an order, everyone moved as a relatively cohesive unit.

But during downtime, Daniel had found himself sharing apprehensive looks with Captain Griff in the face of the close-knit original three members of the team until they'd both decided the others wouldn't bite. Griff had no patience for researchers who hindered his part of the job, but he was friendly otherwise. SG-2, for instance, entirely composed as it was of career military men, tended to use more Tau'ri military slang than SG-1, who couldn't risk confusing Teal'c at key moments. Ferretti tried to use laymen's terms around his civilian attachés when he remembered, but Griff seemed to approve of Daniel's efforts to learn common military jargon.

"I could easily have sat upon you, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c informed him with a glower. "Were we truly doing battle, you would no doubt be dead now."

Daniel grimaced and looked up at his training master from where he still lay on the mat.

"I have told you many times before never to intercept me directly. You build your strength to use against a human; you will always need speed and cunning against a Jaffa."

"I know, I'm sorry, Teal'c. I was distracted."

"That is evident."

Daniel sat up. "Sorry," he repeated.

It was only recently that he and Teal'c had begun to use the exercise rooms regularly during the day when so many others were around, and it was difficult to stay focused, especially when he knew Shifu was sleeping in the infirmary but might wake up at any moment, and someone on the other side of the room was speculating eagerly about unknown people populating a planet with odd power sources. He glanced back toward Jack and Sam. Both were now heading out, Sam saying something about MALP recordings and lights and sealed chambers with functioning life support...

A dark fist came toward him, and he automatically threw himself back down flat to avoid it, rolling to his feet with his hands raised in front of him.

Teal'c folded his arms. "Your speed has improved. Your distraction, however, has not. Finish your exercises now; we will continue another time."

Griff snorted. Daniel ignored him. " _Kel sha_ , _Tek'ma'tae_."

"Are you in disagreement, Captain Griff?" Teal'c asked Griff now.

The captain paused at Teal'c's serious face in his, but didn't seem overly intimidated. "Nope, not me. Just leaving." To Daniel, he added, "Pay attention, grasshopper."

"Right," Daniel muttered as the captain left, deciding not to ask what exactly it was about him that Griff thought resembled an insect. Under Teal'c's critical eye, he sighed and began to jog his first circuit around this section of the gym and hoped Teal'c wouldn't join in, because _no one_ could keep up with a running, miffed Jaffa.

When he was nearly done, he looked up as Staff Sergeant Alipto's voice called, "You're late, Rothman." Robert huffed in displeasure as he entered--athletic champion in college or not, he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about these sessions--and moved first toward Daniel, who slowed to a stop.

"Yeah, yeah. Listen, Daniel, if you're going back to the infirmary, stop in the office first. There's MALP data of some text that I don't recognize. Actually, I don't even have a clue--"

" _Rothman!_ "

"I printed it out--just take a quick look," Robert told him, then scurried off to the trainer.

Daniel glanced at Teal'c for permission, then finished his drills, bowed, and left for the showers.

XXXXX

**_28 September 1998; SGC, Earth; 1900 hrs_ **

Shifu squirmed and mewed loudly.

" _Pari_ , _sinu'ket,_ " Daniel told him through a yawn, shifting his baby brother against his hip with one hand while he flipped through printouts of something in the shape of a circle with his other, papers spread over the surface of an unused bed in the infirmary.

He had been hoping that the MALP data might be some text he would recognize from Abydos, something that had developed after the rebellion against Ra on Earth, so that he might know it even though Robert didn't, but it was like nothing Daniel had ever seen before. He almost questioned that it was text at all, at first--it could be just a decorative design, and it was in the shape of a circle, after all, not even a spiral, which was not only unusual but also highly impractical and, therefore, improbable for a writing system.

But there were clearly separate symbols that could be either ideographs or phonetic units--some repeated, but not so that it formed any sort of obvious aesthetic pattern. It could be some sort of short announcement, maybe. 'Welcome to our planet.'

" _Whatever secrets are inside you...I don't suppose they have to do with what this means, Shifu?_ " he asked the tiny head lying on his arm. Shifu stuck out his tongue and drooled. Daniel sighed, wrinkling his nose, and wiped the baby's face with a spare cloth lying on the beside table. "Of course not."

"Hey," Robert said, poking his head in the infirmary's doorway. "I'm heading home. Any luck with those?"

"I can't even begin to guess how it would be pronounced," he answered apologetically, "much less what language it is or who wrote it."

"It's from the planet P3R-272," Robert said.

Daniel frowned, trying to remember if he'd heard that planet before, and decided it must be one of the next ones up for exploration. "That doesn't actually help."

"Well, that circle is basically all the MALP showed. SG-1's doing recon tomorrow, and I'm going with them. There's a briefing in the morning, but if you can't get anything out of that thing, you don't have to show up."

"I can cross-reference this with other things we have on record," Daniel said. He put the papers down on the bed he'd been using as a desk, dropping his glasses on top to rub his eyes.

"Well, I'll keep looking and check with things I have at home," Robert said. "You take a break. Or if you really want, check with the linguists and take a look at some of the stuff that no one's never been able to figure out. Maybe something'll match."

"Maybe, yeah."

Robert didn't leave, though. Daniel followed his gaze to Shifu and self-consciously adjusted the infant. "Any news from Abydos?" Robert asked.

"SG-8 finished installing the iris almost a month ago, of course, but they've gotten it connected  to the DHD power source now," Daniel said. "It works with codes sent from our GDOs by an automatic acceptance or rejection mechanism. They tested it with SG-6's IDC when they started setting up operations, and it worked perfectly."

"We should just put a big battery there," Robert said, only sounding partly serious. "Then we don't have to worry about draining the DHD."

"Oh, Sam says that the power it takes is negligible compared to what the DHD stores," Daniel said. "And now they understand Goa'uld control crystals well enough to be able to replace the power source if necessary, as long as we keep collecting crystals we find off-world. Um, what else...oh, SG-6 brought back some ore the day before yesterday. Some was sent to the Pentagon's research facilities, and the scientists here are working on a better way to refine it."

"Good," Robert said absently. "You know...I've still got nothing on the Kheb thing."

As if either of them might be unaware. "I know," Daniel said. "I started looking at historical records of anything that had to do with Setesh, Heru, Osiris, Isis, anyone even mentioned in the Kheb myths--"

Robert raised his eyebrows. "Historical records...on Earth?"

"I know, it sounds silly," Daniel admitted, "but I was running out of ideas, and I actually did find a few odd things about Setesh. Religious groups--pretty fanatical ones--over the last few millennia, with mysterious leaders named Setesh or Seth or Sutekh, as recently as the 1820s in England. Of Earth."

"Huh," Robert said, blinking. "That's...weird. I doubt that has anything to do with Kheb, but...are we talking about a Goa'uld, here, or just people latching onto an interesting myth?"

"Well, the accounts are suspicious," he said, "but there's not enough evidence to say much. And I lost all relevant mention of Setesh on Earth after the 1800s, and if he were still here, wouldn't he try to retake the Stargate, or at least be doing...something that we'd notice? So, unless you think I should keep looking, I was going to put it aside."

"Yeah, I think we should table that," Robert agreed, though he was pulling out a pen and writing a note on his palm. "Give me whatever research you have on that and we'll put it aside in case anything rings a bell later. Focus on Kheb for now."

Daniel nodded. "Well, I'm running out of other places to look."

"I've still got some old friends and colleagues from academia," Robert offered, "and I asked around to see if anyone else could tell us something. Don't give me that look; I'm not a moron. I framed it as a question about a reference in Budge."

"And did they have any ideas?"

"Nope. Sarah and Steven--I told you about them, right, Dr. Gardner and Dr. Rayner? Well, they and our professor, Dr. Jordan, all recognized the myth, but that's it. So it's back to the drawing board."

Daniel sighed. Absently, he tugged the edge of Shifu's blanket up and tucked it more securely around his brother.

"Has..." Robert started. He hesitated, then went on. "Has General Hammond said anything else about...you know?"

"About mythology?"

Robert gave him a look. "About the _baby_."

"No, not really. No one's sure what to do with him, but no one wants him too far from our sight."

"For his safety, I'm sure."

"More like for _our_ safety," Daniel corrected unhappily. The Academy hospital, which had been good enough for dozens of Nasyan refugees--one of whom had been an assassin--was not considered secure enough for an infant.

Their caution was justified, he knew, and it wasn't like _he_ , of all people, didn't want secrets that could defeat the Goa'uld. Sha'uri hadn't wanted the Goa'uld to have Shifu, which had to mean that keeping him away from them was a good thing, right? The problem was that no one was sure if he'd be the key the Tau'ri needed to win the war or a dangerous tool the Goa'uld could use to destroy them all if they weren't careful enough. And there was the question of whether it had been Sha'uri or Amaunet instructing them to find Kheb, and Daniel knew, just _knew_ it was the former, but...well, he couldn't quite ignore the possibility that it might have been the latter.

Robert nodded like that was perfectly reasonable, though, because maybe Daniel could try to ignore it, but no one else would. "Did they ever learn anything about those nanocytes?"

"Not much. They're inactive. Sam says they might need to be in range of a transmitter or that they could be activated...uh, remotely, later."

"Then what's the point of them?"

"It's possible that that was what Sha'uri meant when she said Shifu possessed some knowledge," Daniel said. "The nanocytes could be storing it, and we don't know how to reprogram them."

"It's possible," Robert said. "But we've only ever seen them on Argos; it's possible nanocytes only ever make people age."

"Yes, well, I've also been thinking that if Apophis was planning to use Shifu as a host," Daniel said, "he'd have to wait several years until he was old enough, which would seem fine to him; those years would seem as nothing to a Goa'uld who has already lived thousands of years. But..."

"But if he's in a rush," Robert picked up, nodding thoughtfully, "and he can somehow implant nanocytes into an unborn fetus and activate them post-natally, he'll only have to wait about a month before his son's in his prime."

_Not his son_ , Daniel thought, except that was exactly what Shifu was. Born of human flesh, but by the will of two Goa'uld. Sha'uri's flesh, and that of Apophis's host, but the Goa'ulds' son no less for all that.

Suddenly, Daniel wondered for the first time who Apophis's host had been before being imprisoned in his own prison of flesh and bone like Sha'uri was in hers. Then he stopped wondering, because he didn't think there was room in his head to feel both pity and hatred at the thought of Apophis's face. He had to focus on the latter, because he wasn't sure he could...well. There was nothing he could do about the other.

"That means these nanocytes could go active anytime Apophis wants," Robert said.

"I know. Why do you think no one's willing to take Shifu anywhere but here?"

"You realize we're gonna have the Pentagon crawling up our butts soon."

Daniel blinked. "Not...literally?" he asked. Robert gave him a look. "Right. I knew that."

"I _mean_ ," Robert said, "that soon, someone's gonna start bothering us about why he's still here and what we can get out of this. And by 'someone' I mean..."

"Joint Chiefs. The President. The NID," Daniel filled in, because he had been thinking about this, too. He knew that every day that ticked by with no answers meant more pressure on General Hammond to _get_ some answers, and that meant more pressure leaking steadily through to Daniel to figure out something, even though he knew the general was trying to shield him from the brunt of Washington's concerns. "I know, Robert."

"You forgot Congress--or, at least, the few on the appropriations committee who know--because they're always interested."

"Right, thank you. That makes me feel much better."

Robert shrugged. "We'd better hope we find Kheb, and find something there that can...I don't know. What are we hoping, anyway? It'll extract the knowledge for us to use? Take out the nanocytes? Or maybe...you know, it's possible Sha'uri meant for the Harsesis to be...well...gotten rid of somehow--"

" _No_ ," Daniel snapped, too emphatically to pretend he hadn't been thinking of that last possibility himself. The gods knew he had been thinking of it far too much. When Robert's eyes flicked to the infant and then back to him, Daniel swallowed and looked away. "I mean, I know that...that we don't know what's there. Or _if_ it's there. But I trust Sha'uri."

"There are a _lot_ of ways this could go, Daniel," Robert said. "And not all of them are good."

"What do you suggest?" Daniel asked, calming his tone when Shifu whimpered restlessly, disturbed by the audible tension. "We can't do anything until we know more about him. Give him up to the Goa'uld and they gain whatever information he holds, and _we_ lose it. Bring him somewhere less secure than the SGC, and we're letting out a...a potential security breach, or handing him to someone with less desirable intentions. Goa'uld and NID--Scylla and Charybdis."

"And the SGC's right in the middle. I get it. Hey, you've been reading Homer?"

"That's not the point." In fact, he'd read the Greek version Robert had lent him and was partway through the English. His only job these days was to watch over Shifu, be ready and on call for emergencies, and take over basic duties when Robert was off-world consulting for someone. The search for Kheb in books and mythology was slowing down, and there was little more that anyone could do when they hit dead ends on every side. He'd started simply looking over reports after each recent mission, hoping new information would come up, and so far, nothing had.

Then Robert snorted. "Charybdis. So, in your head, the NID is a sea monster that sucks people into a whirlpool?"

Daniel smiled sheepishly but shrugged.

"Well, if they start hounding us about the baby, there _will_ be people who agree with them. Just remember what happened to Odysseus's crew when they got to Scylla and Charybdis, all right?"

Daniel imagined a sea monster with the System Lords for its heads, all reaching down to pluck Shifu out of his arms. "I know. It won't come to that."

Robert opened his mouth, as if to say something further, then stopped and changed the subject instead. "Yeah. So, you okay handling our stuff tomorrow? You can stay with the kid and work from here until I get back if it makes you feel better."

As if to illustrate the point, Shifu started to cry loudly, and Daniel jumped. " _Shh, Shifu, sinu'wer hano'ta_ ," he said, trying to clamp down on his own panic that never failed to spring up when this happened. "Um. Sorry. Crap."

"No, no, uh, yeah," Robert said, backing warily away, more uncomfortable around Shifu than he was around armed marines who didn't like him. "Is he...uh..."

Daniel checked his watch. "I think he's hungry. Or. I think. I should go get..." He stopped, bouncing Shifu gently and not knowing whether he was trying to comfort the baby or simply fidgeting from nervousness. "Sorry. I'll keep working from here on base and make sure to send word through about anything I figure..." He winced as Shifu wailed into his ear. "...out. Um."

"Yeah," Robert repeated, looking from Shifu to the MALP data lying on top of a history textbook at the foot of the bed. "So you should probably..." He gestured vaguely toward Shifu, looking uncomfortable. "And I should..." He looked toward the door.

"Sure," Daniel said, rising awkwardly and trying to hold his brother without crushing him, because he was so _tiny_ it always felt like the slightest pressure could crush the baby that everyone was keeping under such strict watch. "I've got it. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Robert retreated safely out of range of the baby.

Once Shifu was once again being blissfully quiet on his lap, sucking contentedly on a bottle filled with the formula that Janet had started keeping in the infirmary, Daniel sat back for a moment to watch him. He only managed for a few minutes before he became thoroughly bored and put his glasses back on to read his history book until the baby was done so he could go upstairs and look for something more interesting to do.

" _Are you full yet?_ " he asked Shifu hopefully when the slurping sounds slowed and stopped. He gently pulled the bottle away, prompting an immediate sharp whine from Shifu, who reached up with miniscule, flailing hands, as if trying to pull it back. With a sigh, Daniel returned the bottle to his baby brother's mouth and waited.

By the time Shifu was full and content again, Daniel had fallen half-asleep and was sure most of the linguistics consultants on base had probably gone home long ago. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check.

Daniel peeked into the nurses' office to tell them he was leaving for a few minutes, and could they please keep an eye (or two) on Shifu?

That was a mistake, apparently, since the nurse dragged him into the main area of the infirmary, wielding a syringe. Being vaccinated against common Earth diseases apparently took a couple of years to finish, and it turned out that forgetting his appointment schedule didn't matter when he spent most of his days in the infirmary with Shifu. He sighed in resignation and let the nurse inject him with whatever it was this time--he'd stopped asking--and then made his way to the elevator to the eighteenth sublevel, rubbing his arm irritably.

Jack was in the car when the doors opened--a late night for him, as well, but he was dressed in civilian clothes now. "Up?" he asked as Daniel joined him.

"Up," Daniel agreed. "Could you--" he started, but Jack's finger was already on the button marked '18.'

"Are you planning to leave this place anytime in the next...ever?" Jack asked, carefully casual.

"Jack..."

"I'm not pressuring you," Jack told him. "It's up to you if you want to spend time with the...with, uh, Shifu. But you haven't stepped foot off this base in more than a month. If you want to get out of here once in a while, bring him along. It's fine--I said it was your home, too, and I meant it. Fraiser said it's not a problem."

"Well, he can be kind of...loud. And fussy, sometimes. You shouldn't have to..."

"I know what babies are like, kid," Jack said, half-exasperated and half-awkwardly embarrassed by the subject. "A lot better than you do. I've got experience, remember?"

Mentions of Charlie, however oblique, were rare and never careless. Daniel ducked his head. "Right. Um. I'll... I was planning to look over something--it's for your mission tomorrow, so I have a reason to stay tonight...but maybe some other day, later? Soon, maybe? It's been a while."

"Yeah, I've noticed. Just let me know."

The car stopped and the door slid open. Daniel glanced at Jack once, then stepped out, but an arm came out to stop the doors from closing. "Jack?"

Jack stared at him for a moment, then said suspiciously, "You haven't been sleeping."

"Of course I have," Daniel said, fidgeting away a little. Following the general's orders, he hadn't even been off-world since late-August; he was probably better rested than most personnel just by dint of the fact that he'd therefore been able to keep to a regular sleeping schedule. Semi-regular. And if Shifu woke him up sometimes, well, the two of them had taken over a bed in the infirmary, too, and he had his quarters on base, so it wasn't like he didn't have a place to sleep if he was tired.

"Yeah," Jack said again. He didn't look happy, but he didn't push it, either. A lot of people acted like Daniel answered to Jack, and, true, sometimes both of them acted that way, too, but in the end, unless Daniel was temporarily involved in SG-1 business or was missing a training session, Jack couldn't order him to do anything. "If you say so. I'll see you tomorrow, kid." He took his hand from the door and let it start to slide closed.

"Jack, w--just. I mean, good night," Daniel called, receiving a jaunty wave before the doors closed to move the rest of the way up to the surface. He rubbed his eyes, sighed, and turned toward the offices.

The door of the office next to his and Robert's was partially open. Daniel knocked on the door and pushed it open to find Lieutenant Hagman at a desk with no one else around. That wasn't surprising; Hagman loved his work as much as anyone, and he was good at it, too, whatever past bad experiences he had had in the field with SG-1. SG-4 was happy with him, after all, and even those civilians who stayed carefully away from military liked Hagman. Well, the linguists did, anyway. Daniel needed more time to observe if he wanted to characterize the engineers' unique culture.

"Lieutenant?" he said.

Hagman startled with a mug raised to his lips, barely avoiding spilling it over himself and the keyboard. "Jesus! Daniel."

Daniel winced, used to people who noticed when he walked into their territory. Even Robert, for all he acted like he was absentminded to a fault, had an uncanny ability to notice whenever someone walked within two paces of one of his artifacts. Daniel had tested it, once, and none of Teal'c's Jaffa stealth tips could help him in that arena. "Sorry to disturb you," he said.

Hagman put the mug down with a rueful smile. "S'okay. Should've been paying more attention. Whaddya need?"

Pushing the door open further, Daniel stepped into the office. "I just wanted to see if anyone recognized this writing." He held out the P3R-272 circular inscription. "Or if you had an idea of where to start looking for references."

Hagman took it from him but was shaking his head even before he took a good look. "Not me, sorry. What do you know about it? Do you know if it's a phonetic alphabet or--"

"No idea," Daniel said. "I've never seen it before. It's from MALP footage. Block-like character units, but...I don't know what to make of it."

"Well, if you want, there's a pile of mystery data over..." Hagman gestured toward a table in the corner, then stood. "Okay, so, it's a little buried. I'm sure it's here somewhere."

Daniel watched him dig out the pile of folders and resolved to organize his own desk sometime in the future, when they weren't so busy.

"Here. Knock yourself out," the lieutenant finally said, handing them to him. "I don't remember seeing any writing like that before, but some of that stuff goes back almost a year, so maybe something'll catch your attention. " He shrugged. "Good luck."

Daniel accepted the offered folders with a nod of thanks and stopped by his own quarters to drop them off before going back to the infirmary.

" _Come on, little brother_ ," he told Shifu, picking him up and waving to the nurse on the way out toward his room. " _You can help me read through the papers._ " Shifu made a sound remarkably similar to Jack's scoff. " _Or go to sleep_ ," Daniel amended with a yawn. " _I don't care._ "

XXXXX

**_29 September 1998; SGC, Earth; 0930 hrs_ **

"Wasn't Rothman coming with us?" Jack said as he led the rest of SG-1 into the briefing room.

Daniel didn't raise his head but looked at them over the top of his glasses. "He's on his way. I've been looking over"--he held up the circular inscription from P3R-272--"this, so I thought I would see you off."x

"And what is that?"

"It's part of what the MALP sent back, sir," Sam told him, sitting across from him. "Daniel, you know what it says? Dr. Rothman said it didn't even look familiar to him."

"I couldn't figure it out, either," he admitted as Robert hurried in. Jack raised his eyebrows in question just as General Hammond entered.

"As you were," the general said, taking his seat. "Captain Carter, you were the one who suggested this planet as one worth exploring. Care to elaborate?"

"Yes, sir," Sam said, folding her hands on the table and leaning forward. "There were no signs of hostile life forms that we could see--"

"Or of any life in general," Jack said.

"Not exactly," she corrected. "The MALP indicated that the Stargate is in some kind of enclosed structure. Now, we've sent it as far as it can go into the enclosure, and we can't find any sign of what it was used for. Dr. Rothman is sure it's not a natural formation, but its construction is too sophisticated for technology at our level. Beyond that, the MALP's sensors read breathable air, a comfortable temperature, and lights, without any visible source of power for any of it."

Jack's face showed some disappointment, but he summarized, "In other words, technological survey."

"Someone created that technology," General Hammond said. "Are you certain there were no signs of any inhabitants?"

"None that we saw with the MALP, sir."

"Except the writing on the floor," Robert pointed out. "Which, granted, could've been left there a long time ago."

"I don't think it was a long time," Daniel said. "The MALP sent back a clear picture, and the stone around the words isn't eroded at all. Enclosed or not, there must be some...air movement, even, that would make the words less sharp over time than they actually are."

"Yes," Robert agreed. "So either those words were carved very recently, in which case we're more likely to meet the very advanced people who wrote it, or they were carved a long time ago by someone with very interesting technology. It's flashy, too--lights up and everything. I'd like a look at it."

"Do you have any idea what it says?" General Hammond asked both of them.

"Uh...well, no. We don't know anything about the language, but we've seen advanced races that were able to learn English very quickly to be able to communicate with us, like the Nox. It's possible that that could be the case here, too, or that we could figure it out after meeting them."

"If we're right, they could be much more advanced than we are," Sam added. "Maybe--and this is a long shot, but it's possible--they could be someone like the Asgard, advanced and willing to help humans against the Goa'uld."

"Or," Robert said, "they could be advanced and willing to kill humans. Not," he added when the general turned to him, "that I don't think we should go and look. It's just...you know. It could be that."

"I definitely think we should check it out, sir," Sam said.

"All right," General Hammond decided. "SG-1 and Dr. Rothman, you have a go. You leave in two hours."

Jack paused by Daniel's chair as they filed out, tilting his head to look at the circular inscription from various angles. Finally, he sighed. "This better be good."

XXXXX

**_29 September 1998; SGC, Earth; 1500 hrs_ **

'Good' wasn't how Daniel would have described the results.

From the control room, he watched in horror as Teal'c dragged Jack back through the wormhole, with everyone else uninjured but Jack slung over Teal'c's shoulder, unmoving. It didn't help that the only information he could get out of anyone was _'I don't know'_ and _'colored lights'_ and _'head-grabbing-thing,'_ and, really, what did that mean?

Now, he sat on the edge of Shifu's bed, peeking through the frosted window in the doors that separated this area from the main part of the infirmary, where Jack was now awake, along with the rest of SG-1.

"I don't understand," he said aloud to Robert, frustrated. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would any people do--"

"It wasn't the 'people' so much as the..." Robert waved a hand toward his head. "Head-grabbing thing."

Daniel glared at the floor, because that wasn't helpful at all, then walked to the door to peer through at SG-1 again and moved agitatedly back toward the bed.

"Will you stop, Daniel? If you wake the baby and make me listen to him cry, I will make you brief the marine combat teams alone for the next year, don't think I won't."

"No you won't, and he's not going to cry," Daniel said, checking on Shifu just to make sure. As if understanding the tension, the infant was awake but silent. Normally, it made Daniel nervous when Shifu stayed so eerily quiet like that, but right now, Jack had come back from the stupid planet with the stupid head-grabbing whatever-it-was that no one recognized, and 'quiet' in any form was a good thing.

"Dr. Fraiser said he seems fine," Robert said. "Colonel O'Neill says he's fine. And, hey, look at that, he's walking out, so I'm sure he's fi--"

Daniel was out the doors before Robert could finish.

"Jack, are you--" he started

"For cryin' out loud, I am _fine_!" Jack snapped.

"Uh...okay," Daniel said, taken aback and holding his hands up. "I didn't say--"

"If someone asks me _one more time_ if I'm..."

"We need to debrief," Sam cut in, looking relieved and anxious all at once. "Daniel, we'll fill you in when we're done." Daniel didn't miss the way she turned not-so-surreptitiously toward Jack every few seconds, as if expecting him to fall over, or the way Teal'c hovered so close behind that Jack managed to step on his toes several times on the way to the briefing room.

"Whoa, hey," Robert said, coming out as well and hurrying after them. "Yeah, thanks for telling me!"

"Rothman, briefing room," Jack barked without turning.

"But--" Daniel called after them. "Wh--Sam? Teal'c! What's going on?"

"I'll find you in your office when we know," Sam assured him as they turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

Daniel stared after them, then looked from the silently watching infant on the bed to the nurse who was currently on shift in this section. " _I'll be back later. And stop kicking my papers around,_ " he admonished Shifu, pulling a mythology book out of range. He checked that the railings were secured on the bed, then hurried up to the archaeology office to wait for his friends.

XXXXX

**_1 October 1998; SGC, Earth; 1700 hrs_ **

Two days later, everyone was still suspicious that something _odd_ was going on with Jack--which only made Jack crankier, since he was quarantined on base--but no one had figured it out yet, so Daniel found himself back in the archaeology office.

For some reason, every time he stood up from his chair and walked away from that circular inscription on the floor of P3R-272, he thought he had forgotten something and simply needed to stare harder at it. And then he sat down again and stared again, only to realize that he was fooling himself. He had never seen it before, and no amount of straining his eyes would tell him what it meant when he didn't even know what it sounded like.

_Careless. Should have looked harder. Shouldn't have assumed 'intelligent and advanced' meant 'friendly.'_

Perhaps that circular inscription really was from an advanced civilization, or even a different race of beings as powerful as the Asgard. Even so, the text could have any number of meanings. For all they knew, it was a warning to stay away. Or it could have said 'Do Not Trespass.' Or maybe the inscription had been written by someone who worked for the Goa'uld. Or they could be an enemy of humans or the Tau'ri without being Goa'uld at all. Or it said 'Welcome' and the device that had attacked Jack was beneficial, but only to a different species. There were so many possibilities, and he hadn't considered any of them as well as he should have.

So Daniel was still hunched over the ring of text from P3R-272, thinking of increasingly wild possibilities, when he heard Robert's voice calling from down the hall, "You know, if you could all stop running around for a second, we could maybe try to figure this out. Colonel O'Neill, seriously, just--!"

Jack stormed into the office, Sam and Teal'c behind him and Robert's voice following them. Ignoring the archaeologist, Jack demanded, "Okay, I need to figure out what the hell is going on!"

Robert's figure came into view then, just as Daniel blinked and said, "Okay. What's going on?"

With a frustrated growl, Jack threw his hands in the air. Teal'c tilted his head at the display and told Daniel, "Colonel O'Neill seems to be having difficulty expressing certain words."

"I don't have problems expressing words, Teal'c," Jack snapped. "I just can't seem to get some of them out in English."

His interest peaked, Daniel sat up straight and pushed up his glasses. "Well, like what? And what language is it?"

Shouldering past the SG-1 blockade of the doorway, Robert explained, "No idea. During the debrief a couple days ago, he tried to say that nothing was wrong with him, but instead he said that nothing was ' _cruvus_ ' with him. We thought it was a slip of the tongue at the time."

"Nothing was ' _curvus_ ,' huh?" Daniel asked, his mind whirring as he stood and started to scan the bookshelves. When silence met his question, he turned back. "What, you said _'curvus_ ,' right? Like 'bent' or 'twisted' or...you know. Not right. Wrong. No? Sorry, uh, what did you say it was?"

"No, he definitely said ' _cruvus_ ,'" Sam corrected. "You switched the..." She twisted two fingers around each other. "The sounds."

"Oh," Daniel said, satisfied. "Well, there."

She frowned. "I don't--"

"A metathesis," Robert interrupted. "' _Cruvus_ ' to _'curvus_ ,' or the other way around. You think this is Latin?"

Daniel shrugged, standing on his toes to pull down one Latin dictionary while Robert ducked around him to reach for another. "I don't know about the timescale," Daniel said, "but Latin's probably too recent. It could be a derivative. Or it's related somehow and developed in parallel. When did Latin on Earth--?"

"A few centuries--no, about a millennium BC, I think," Robert said, "so yeah, after the Stargate closed here. But there were Italic languages before anyone ever settled in Latium, maybe before the Goa'uld left Earth."

"So our Latin might have a common ancestor with the P3R-272 language," Daniel finished, excited now. "Finally! We can probably figure it out, then. We have ' _cruvus_ ,' and...what else?" he asked, turning to SG-1.

They stared back at him without speaking for a moment. Then, "Nuh-uh," Jack said flatly, pointing a finger at them. "I don't know Latin in any form. Except pig."

"What?"

"Pig Latin."

"Is that a derivative of--"

"No," Robert said firmly, rolling his eyes.

Daniel pointed out, "Well, you're speaking _something_."

Sam turned to Jack now and studied him as if the answer were written somewhere on his person. "You think it was the..." She gestured vaguely around her head.

"The head-grabber thing, maybe," Robert said. "It could've been putting information in your head."

"Like downloading something onto a computer," Sam suggested, nodding. "I wonder if..."

Jack held up a finger. "Ah-aht! Before we get too far into this fascinating discussion, can we keep in mind that I have lost the _falatus_ to speak properly! What?" he added when all of their stares whipped toward him.

Daniel met Robert's eyes across the desk, and both bent to page quickly through their dictionaries. Before Robert could speak, Daniel said, " _Facultas_? Means, capacity, ability."

"I was about to say that," Robert muttered.

Jack's hands came down heavily on top of the desk between them. "If you two are done with your little game of 'find the word,' would you do something before I'm completely _derentis_?"

" _Dementis_ ," Robert said quickly, flashing Daniel a smug look. "Crazy."

"That was an easy one," Daniel said. As Jack's expression very rapidly lost what little had been left of his patience, however, he added confidently, "No, it's okay, Jack, we know a related language now. It could well be close to Latin, which means there might be some clues we can understand. We just have to figure out how it happened and why, and we might have a way to solve it."

"Fine," Jack said, visibly trying to calm down and beginning to pace slowly again.

When he didn't say anything else, Daniel asked the room at large, "So...how did this happen?"

"I thought _you_ were going to figure that out!"

"What I mean," Daniel said patiently, "is I wasn't there. Robert told me about the"--he tried to think of a more dignified term, then gave up--"head-grabbing thing that appeared out of the wall. He said it only worked on you, yes?"

Sam explained, "We don't actually know that. Only Teal'c and the colonel tried it. We think it didn't affect Teal'c because of his symbiote; we've seen technology before that's sensitive to the presence of a Goa'uld."

"Like Asgard technology," Daniel said, encouraged. "Well, that's good."

"So what if it's like Asgard technology?" Jack said.

"So, we like the Asgard. Don't we? I think... I mean, we like the Asgard, right?"

"So? And? Theref--"

" _So_...maybe this technology was made to work against the Goa'uld somehow, just like Asgard technology was. I mean, nothing about this seems like Goa'uld work, does it?" he asked Sam.

"It doesn't look like Goa'uld technology to me," she allowed.

"And it's teaching you a language. Does that seem like such a bad thing?"

Jack scowled. "It's also getting rid of this other _lengha_ I normally know."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. " _Lingua?_ Language."

"Whoa," Robert said, blinking at Jack. "That's an interesting fricative. Where the heck did _that_ one disappear to when Latin was developing?"

"What purpose would such a technology serve?" Teal'c said before Jack could explode.

"To...to help us communicate with them better," Daniel suggested.

Sam shook her head. "By making him _less_ able to communicate with _us_? I don't know; sounds a little shaky to me."

"Maybe it wasn't designed for humans?" He sat down again, thinking. "Okay, hold on. What made the...device come out in the first place?"

"Colonel O'Neill passed through the circle on the floor just before it appeared," Teal'c said.

"You think that was the trigger?" Robert asked.

Daniel picked up the circular inscription. "You mean this thing? So stepping through the circle triggered the device."

" _Nu ani anquietas_ ," Jack said suddenly, staring at the printout.

"...What?" Daniel said.

" _Nu ani anquietas_ ," he repeated, adding, " _Hic qua videum_."

Daniel looked at the text and back up. "Are you...reading this?"

Irritably, Jack said, "I don't know; you tell me!"

Robert came around to peer at the text as well. "Huh. Daniel, have you been able to figure out any--"

"No, I still have no idea. Jack, do you know what this means?"

"No!" Jack insisted. "I'm just looking at it, and the words pop right into my _fron_."

" _Frons_ , _frontis_ ," Robert put in helpfully. "Forehead."

"Just 'head,' in this context," Daniel said, wondering if it was the general word for head or if it carried the connotation of the forefront of one's mind. His excitement dimmed slightly as Jack pressed the fingers of one hand hard into his eyes while reaching for the edge of Robert's chalkboard with the other. "Jack? What's wrong?"

Looking worried as well, Sam jumped in. "Sir, this device has clearly tampered with your brain somehow. I think we should talk to Dr. Fraiser again."

Jack ignored her and picked up a piece of chalk.

"Jack," Daniel said again, his concern tinged with impatience now, "of all times, this is not the time to start playing with our...things..." He trailed off as Jack, instead of idly juggling pieces of chalk as he often did, turned his back to them and began writing something on the board. "Um. What are you doing?"

Sam walked closer. "These are equations for something," she said. "Sir?"

"What, Carter?" Jack said, scribbling quickly.

She studied his progress and wrinkled her brow. "Sir?" she said again, incredulously.

"I don't know," Jack told her, his hand moving furiously across the surface. "It's just...just coming out--I don't know!"

"You know math?" Robert said.

Jack finished-- _naturu_ , he had covered almost the entire board in less than a minute--and spun around to glare at Robert. "No, they made me a colonel in the US Air Force without making sure that I knew two plus two."

"Uh," Sam said, scanning over the equations. "Sir, this is...well, a little beyond 'two plus two.'"

"Y'think?"

"But it doesn't make any sense."

"Join the club, Carter!" he snapped.

"No," she said, pointing at a string of numbers, "I mean the _equations_ don't make sense." Daniel couldn't do arithmetic with such huge numbers in his head like Sam probably could, but he could see a few places, too, where the digits simply didn't match up. There was no way a _four_ and a _six_ should add to something ending in a _two_.

Jack exhaled heavily and rubbed his temple.

_His 'fron,'_ Daniel thought, and quickly jotted it down before he could forget, because he was starting to realize something was _wrong_ with Jack, and he couldn't do medical scans or solve equations that had factorials and numbers with more digits than he wanted to count, but he could solve this language, and he would--he _would_.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said calmly, "I believe we should consult with Dr. Fraiser."

"So do I," Jack replied tightly.

Daniel bit his lip and stopped writing when he heard the easy agreement, because he knew how much most people hated enforced trips to the infirmary, and Jack was certainly not an exception. He took a step forward to go with them before stopping, torn between keeping apprised of what was happening to Jack and staying to follow up on what they now knew about the language.

"Daniel, stay here--we need to work through this," Robert said, taking the decision out of his hands and gesturing toward the text, where he had written an approximation of what Jack had read from the inscription. Daniel looked back at SG-1, but Jack waved him toward the data as well.

"Right, okay," Daniel agreed with a confused mixture of reluctance and guilty eagerness. He promised the team as they left, "We'll tell you as soon as we get anything."

"Thanks, guys," Sam said, ushering her CO out the door. "We'll be downstairs."

Daniel sank down at his desk while Robert pulled a chair closer and said, "All right. Let's get to work."


	11. Cruvus, Part II

**_1 October 1998; SGC, Earth; 1800 hrs_ **

Daniel sighed, tapping a finger on the desk. "' _Nu_ ' has to be 'we.'" _Nos, nous, nosotros, noi_...it fit well enough with other Latin-based languages.

"Or 'us,' " Robert pointed out.

"Right, okay. 'We' or 'us.'"

"Or 'our.' Don't make any assumptions about morphology."

"But...yes, fine. 'First person plural pronoun,' then."

"Or--"

"Probably," Daniel interrupted, exasperated, because they had to assume a little bit if they expected to get anywhere with figuring out this language. "We'll keep in mind the fact that it's an assumption. Now, ' _anquietas_ '...what does that sound like? ' _Inquietus_?' "

"As in 'worried?' 'We...worried?' 'We _are_ worried?'"

Meeting Robert's eyes over the text, Daniel winced. "Maybe it was a warning."

"A warning about the head-grabber," Robert suggested.

"That would make sense. Well, no, wait, actually," Daniel amended, frowning. "Think about it. The head-grabber is what...uh, downloaded the ability to speak this language into Jack's brain. It must have been made by the same people who wrote this, or at least the same race. And it was _activated_ by stepping through the inscription."

"Which would be a pretty stupid thing for a warning label to do when they could have just put up a barricade or something instead. Unless, of course, it was a trap."

"Then why would they write anything at all?" Daniel reasoned. "Anyone who could read it would be warned off."

"Unless they were trying to warn off everyone _except_ those who couldn't read it," Robert countered to advocate the devil. Or play at...advocating...some expression Daniel couldn't remember exactly about advocates and devils, but it was an important role they each had to play for the other every time they looked for a new theory on anything.

"Then why would the device give them the ability to read the language _after_ they'd already been affected? _That_ part still doesn't make sense unless the purpose was to impart knowledge somehow."

"But imparting knowledge also doesn't make sense, not if it destroys previously-existing knowledge."

"Okay, so we have no idea if the downloading was supposed to be a beneficial thing," Daniel admitted, "but that's not the point. The point is that ' _anquietas_ ' probably doesn't mean 'worried.'"

Robert paused. "Fine. Try a new word."

Daniel nodded, encouraged at the agreement. "What else fits, besides ' _inquietus_?' There could have been a lot of sound change in the language between this and Latin."

"Well, we have about three words of data to go on, but we know there was a metathesis rule of some sort during the period between Latin and this language, as well as certain sound deletions. There may have been vowel shifts..."

Rolling the word around his tongue, Daniel tried, " _Anquietas..._ Um... _Aniquetas... Anquteus... Antiquas..._ "

"Whoa, stop there. _Anti..._ " Robert held up a hand, eyes flicking about like he was thinking. "What about ' _antiquitus?_ '"

"So...that would make 'We ancient.' Or something like 'We _are_ ancient.'"

"Makes them sound like they were either really senile or really arrogant, depending on what their culture thinks--or thought--about age."

"They wrote it; they're hardly going to call themselves senile and then carve it into the ground. It could be a substantive, too, so: 'we are the ancient _ones_ ,'" Daniel said. "Latin doesn't have definite articles."

"Neither did Proto-Indo-European, according to theory," Robert said, and while Daniel lagged far behind him in theoretical and historical linguistics as studied on Earth, he recognized Robert's tone as one of agreement. "Fine. Let's go with that for now. It could be an identification of who they are, not necessarily part of the main message itself. 'We are the ancient ones.' What about the next part?"

" _Hic qua videum_ ," Daniel read aloud from his notes.

They stared at the words for a few minutes before Robert took off his glasses to rub his eyes. "Doesn't make any sense at all. I'll guess a 'this' or 'here;' a 'which;' and ' _videum_ ,' something to do with being seen. That doesn't mean anything. Nothing meaningful, anyway."

Impatient, Daniel scowled. "That doesn't mean we won't get it."

"We're assuming a lot about how similar these languages are. We might not be able to figure this out at all."

That wasn't acceptable to Daniel. "'This...which must be seen?'" he tried. Maybe the last word was a participle. Periphrastic?

"I mean," Robert said. "Sure. It's possible. But we're still reaching--"

"Then we reach! Look, maybe we're being too word-for-word literal. If we assume ' _qua'_ is a relative pronoun, ' _hic_ ' should be a noun, right, not an adverb, so it's either 'this' or a noun somehow related to 'here.' Or both. 'This place,' maybe."

Robert donned his glasses again with a sigh. "Okay, try that. So 'this place...where...it is seen.'"

"What is 'it?' " Daniel asked. "What's seen?" When Robert didn't answer, he added, "That wasn't rhetorical. What did you see there?"

"Oh. Uh, not much. A...a room, no exits, nothing fancy, besides the inscription on the floor. Then the head-grabbing device."

Daniel cocked his head, raising a finger to his lips in thought. "You know..."

"What?"

"Maybe that device was the entire purpose of that room. That entire world, maybe, since there was no way to get out of the room. The device put information into Jack's head that led--or _is_ leading--to..." He flapped a hand, then stopped when he realized it make it look like he was pointing at the math, which wasn't exactly what he meant. "I don't know. Leading to...some kind of knowledge we didn't have before."

"Knowledge about this race's...culture or something," Robert said slowly, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling in thought. "And they're probably...well, either they've left or died off or backed away from whatever's going on, at least on that planet."

"What? Why do you think that?"

"Well, you don't call yourself an 'ancient one' while you're still around. Or, at least, you don't call your entire race that, unless you're trying to present yourself as gods to, you know, 'younger beings' or leave some sort of message or a...a legacy for someone to find." Robert squinted. "Oh, hey...hey, you think...?"

Sitting up fast, Daniel exclaimed, "Yes, that's it! That's what there is to see there. That's what the device was doing--showing their legacy. That's the 'it.' The planet is the place where their _legacy_ is seen."

"Seen...or experienced. Or passed on." Robert stared into space a moment longer, running it through his brain. "Okay. So that planet we 'gated to was the place of their legacy, and they're trying to pass on all the knowledge left behind by their race to...Colonel O'Neill?"

He sounded dubious. As much as Daniel wanted to take offense on behalf of a friend, he admitted to himself that Jack was far from the first person he'd have chosen to pass on complicated cultural information about any race. "Well, not specifically to _him_ , obviously, but to _someone_."

"That could be it, I guess."

"Yeah, you really think so?" Daniel said hopefully. "I mean, suddenly Jack has all this knowledge that he didn't have before, and apparently it all has to do with the...these ancient ones. It's certainly nothing any of us knew or could do before all this happened." Daniel was pretty certain Jack wouldn't have been able to write all those foreign-looking equations without outside influence.

"Yeah, yeah...that could work," Robert agreed. "'We are the ancient ones--the Ancients. This place where...our legacy is seen.' Other possibilities?"

Suppressing his impatience to see what Janet had to say about the situation, Daniel forced himself to try to be thorough. "Well...okay. We could be completely wrong. For one, we're making assumptions about the grammar. It could be something like: 'See...what is here.' "

Robert nodded, but said, "That doesn't change the semantics too much, though. It's still about showing us whatever the head-grabber was...you know, trying to show."

"And it still sounds relatively welcoming," Daniel added, looking at Robert to see whether that was just wishful thinking.

"Yeah, it does. But we're still guessing about the word ' _anquietas_ ,' and the rest is still speculation, too. Let's go through it again, see if anything else fits, and then we'll wait until after Colonel O'Neill's exam and then go tell everyone."

XXXXX

**_1 October 1998; SGC, Earth; 2100 hrs_ **

"We believe it says, 'We are the Ancients,'" Daniel said as they stood in the briefing room with General Hammond, Sam, and Janet. "'This is the place of our legacy.'"

"Or something to that effect," Robert said. "We think some race of people called the Ancients left their knowledge behind in that device on P3R-272 in order to pass it on to whoever found it."

"Just like that?" the general asked. "To anyone?"

"Someone not Goa'uld or Jaffa, I think," Robert amended, "but since Colonel O'Neill's the only one to have used it, we can't know if there are other necessary biological or behavioral characteristics for activating and using the device. We're looking at a sample size of one."

"Is Jack okay?" Daniel asked, turning to Janet.

The doctor hesitated, then said, "Teal'c is watching over him, but I'm concerned. The colonel's brain is showing elevated electrical activity--as much as ten times more activity than normal."

"Consistent with having lots of extra information in his brain?" Robert asked.

"It's possible."

"So, the new language, the sudden math expertise..."

"That's not all he's done," Sam told them. "He took apart one of our staff weapons just before you two came down so he could get at the naquadah power cell."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Why did he want a naquadah power cell?"

"No one knows, even him. He doesn't seem to realize what he's doing half the time, and he doesn't seem to understand what comes out of it. _I_ don't even understand the math he was doing earlier, and I'm fairly certain he didn't know before today how to dismantle Goa'uld weaponry safely. More importantly, before today, he would never have _wanted_ to do any of those things."

The general pursed his lips. "You're saying that he's being controlled by it in some way?"

Daniel glanced at Sam, who looked even more uncertain than before. "It's possible, sir. He's clearly not in complete, conscious control of himself."

"And there's more," Janet said. "I compared today's scans to the ones we ran just after the mission, and I'm concerned about what this is doing to Colonel O'Neill's health. The foreign activity isn't subsiding; if anything, the problem seems to be advancing. I think whatever affected him might be taking over incrementally."

"Taking... _over_?" Daniel repeated, rapidly moving from alarmed to scared.

"Well, the 'downloading' analogy is pretty good. The colonel's...hard drive has been filled with information written in a language that his computer doesn't understand. If it continues to progress the way it has thus far, we're going to be seeing more and more of these changes."

"So it could eventually overwrite the current system," Sam said.

Janet nodded in acknowledgement. "Or, in the worst-case scenario, even shut it down. I advise that we focus our efforts on reversing the effects of this device."

"Reversing it?" Robert repeated. "This is a language spoken by a very advanced race whose technology excludes people carrying symbiotes. This could be the key to meeting an important potential ally, General; we can't let an opportunity like this--"

"I have a man whose life is in danger, Doctor," General Hammond said coldly. Robert broke off, looking surprised--Daniel suspected that thought hadn't even occurred to him. "Focus on fixing this."

"Ye--uh, yes, sir," Robert said quickly.

"Is he still in the infirmary?" Daniel asked. "Can I go and talk to him? Maybe it'll help to figure out more."

"I don't see why not," Janet said.

Robert dug into a pocket and pulled something out. "Wait, Daniel--here. Record as much as you can. Until this gets solved, we might as well collect as much data as possible. Here, you've seen me use this: play, record, stop. Okay?"

"Gentlemen..." the general started again, scowling.

"General, it's important!" Robert insisted.

Daniel took the tape recorder that Robert often used to take notes and nudged him a little to the side. The archaeologist didn't always pay sufficient attention to social cues, a luxury that an alien in Daniel's position couldn't afford. "Sir," he said, trying to translate between the two chains of command he obeyed, "the only thing we know about the device right now is what Jack says or does. Any information we can collect, even if it's recorded and might take some time to interpret it..."

The general nodded, placated. "All right, then. Go ahead."

When he arrived, Jack was not in the main part of the infirmary, but rather in the section where Shifu stayed, staring at the baby while Teal'c stood watch over him a few steps behind. There was a nurse watching, too, as there always was when Daniel wasn't with Shifu, but she was staying to one side while Jack and Teal'c were there.

Pushing through the doors, Daniel called, "Jack? Is everything okay?"

Without turning, Jack said, " _Perennial_."

" _Pere--_ from _perennis?_ 'Continuous' or, uh, 'unending?' " Daniel fumbled with the buttons on the tape recorder until he had pressed the right one.

" _Haud_ ," Jack said, shaking his head. "That's not it. It's... _malum_."

That one was easy, even as Daniel noted with concern the increasing use of alien words. " _Malus._ 'Bad, evil.' Oh. You're saying Shifu is...what, _pernicies?_ 'Destruction. Disaster.'" He looked from Jack to Shifu. "He...he's not evil," he said, wishing he were certain that it was true. "Jack, that's ridiculous; he's a month and a half old. You've never said that about him before."

"I'm not...I don't know." Jack's hands tightened convulsively on the rail of the bed, though, and Daniel remembered with a shiver that their current hope was that the Ancients might be opponents of the Goa'uld, and that Shifu was the child of two Goa'uld whom even the Asgard refused to shelter. Was he to be the Goa'uld's destruction, or the Tau'ri's? Was that why Sha'uri had tried to warn them to keep him away from Abydos?

And what would the Ancients have wanted to do with a child who held enemy secrets?

"Um...Jack," Daniel said, approaching cautiously. "What, uh...what are you...maybe...we should go somewhere else."

"There's something I need to do," Jack said, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his forehead. Daniel took the opportunity to move closer to Shifu, one hand reaching over the railing so he'd get there faster if he had to. Jack opened his eyes and noticed. "Dammit, I'm not going to do anything to the _perennial_ , Daniel."

Swallowing, Daniel nodded but didn't move, because he was relatively certain Jack hadn't meant to take apart a staff weapon either, and whether he understood it or not, he was still calling Shifu evil. "I know you wouldn't, Jack."

"But he's _cruvus_ , you know."

Immediately defensive, Daniel asked sharply, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"His existence is forbidden," Teal'c answered instead, making Daniel remember that Teal'c was at least as strongly opposed to the Goa'uld as anyone else could be.

"Well...well, that's why we're taking him to Kheb," Daniel said. "There might be something there to help..." He shook his head. "Okay, wait, I'm not here to talk about Shifu or Kheb; I need to ask you some more questions about that device on P3R-272. Jack, do you--"

"Kheb. _Illac lume_."

Teal'c leaned forward a little. "O'Neill, you know of this Kheb?"

But Jack shook his head. Frozen in place, Daniel thought aloud, " _Illac_ \-- _illic_. 'There.' And _lume_ has to be 'light.' There is light at Kheb?"

"I don't... It's a _locas axselo_."

"A...a place..." Daniel squinted at nothing, trying to think and wishing he had some reference materials with him right now. _Axselo?_ "I don't understand, but you know of it, then. Do you know where it is?"

Instead of answering, Jack slowly backed away from the bed, then abruptly turned and left the infirmary.

"O'Neill--"

"Jack--"

"I need to get to the control room."

"But why--"

"Daniel, I have no clue!"

Daniel exchanged a look with Teal'c. Teal'c hurried after Jack, and Daniel took an extra moment to make sure Shifu really was okay before following them.

By the time he caught up, Jack was sitting at one of the computers, one bewildered technician standing to the side and Teal'c hovering behind. "Jack?"

"Don't ask," Jack said tersely, his fingers flying over the keyboard faster than anyone Daniel had ever seen, and that was including Sam when she was excited. Daniel leaned in for a closer look, but this was outside anything he knew or understood, and the numbers scrolling up the monitor screen meant absolutely nothing to him. Teal'c caught his eye, and he nodded and turned up the stairs to the briefing room where, fortunately, the general was still talking with Sam, Robert, and Janet.

"The point is--" Sam was saying.

"General, sorry," Daniel interrupted. "Sam, Jack's in the control room, doing something on the computer, and no one knows what it is."

"What?" Sam said, starting down the stairs immediately, the general on her heels.

"Colonel," General Hammond said once they were there, "what are you doing?"

"I don't know sir," Jack said evenly, not pausing. "You know me and computers."

"Well, I'm ordering you to stop!"

"I'd love to, sir, but I can't."

"I'm locked out," Sam said, working on an adjacent computer, typing as if racing to reach some result before Jack could. "Main system's down."

The general turned to Teal'c, ordering, "Stop him."

Daniel watched with a mixture of shock and fascination as Teal'c forcibly pulled Jack out of his seat and away from the computer. "No," Jack protested now, his hands still reaching wildly for the keyboard, "No, I'm not _farit_!"

" _Farit,_ " Daniel repeated as Robert came down the stairs, turning to ask him for confirmation. " _Farti...fartus_? Full?"

"More like 'finished,' going by context," Robert observed with an detached interest Daniel wished he could feel. "A semantic shift from _fartus_ , or maybe some phonological change starting from _finis_."

"Jack, what were you doing? What were you trying to finish?"

The computers shut off.

"Oh, boy," Sam muttered, reaching out and trying to turn everything back on.

"Captain?" the general asked warily.

"Sir, I can't restart the--oh." Suddenly, the monitors lit back up with the numbers that Daniel had seen before.

"What is that?"

Still caught in Teal'c's grasp, Jack stretched an arm out and managed hit a few more keys before being restrained again. He sighed.

Sam was scanning over the data appearing on the screen. "This is in machine code. Whatever he was entering must've been some sort of program. It could have rewritten massive amounts of our system." Looking torn between annoyance and apprehension, she turned to Jack, asking, "What did you do?"

"Uh, Captain Carter," Robert said as the display changed again.

Sam turned back, her brow furrowed. "This is the destination map. These are all the Stargates we've calculated and dialed."

"Yeah, then what are _those_?"

Red symbols--representations of the Stargate ring, Daniel guessed--were appearing all over the map. "Sam, are those new 'gates?"

"That's not possible," she said, shaking her head and frowning at the map and the data scrolling beside it too rapidly for Daniel to understand. "It takes days to recalculate an address, and--whoa. Wait a second. Sir," she said, turning to General Hammond, "these new Stargate coordinates did _not_ come from the Abydos cartouche data we put in last year."

"But how can that--"

"Well, if the Ancients were opposed to the Goa'uld," Robert said, "they might've kept records of addresses that the Goa'uld don't know. This makes it look more likely that they're at least as advanced as the Goa'uld."

"Colonel?" General Hammond asked. "You know where these go?"

Jack winced, raising a hand to his head. " _Haud_."

"'No,'" Daniel translated Robert said together.

Sam was watching him with concern. "General, whatever's going on, maybe something on one of these planets can give us more information. If we could send probes through..."

"Do it," the general said. "Colonel O'Neill..." Jack squinted at him but stayed silent. Looking regretful, but resolute, the general told him firmly, "You are not under arrest. But you are also not to touch anything else on this base without permission. Do you understand?"

Sagging in Teal'c's grip, Jack stared at the Stargate addresses on the screen, then sighed. " _Etium_ , sir."

_Etiam_ , Daniel thought. 'Yes.' "Jack, can you come up with us to the office? Maybe we can figure out something more."

"At the least, we can document more of this language," Robert added.

The general nodded in agreement, and Jack finally acquiesced as well, pulling away from Teal'c and following the two of them to the elevator.

XXXXX

**_2 October 1998; SGC, Earth; 0200 hrs_ **

Robert flapped a hand at Daniel and said something.

Fighting encroaching tiredness, Daniel tore his gaze away from Jack. "What?"

"Can you write down that last bit he said?" Robert repeated, refilling a mug of coffee.

"The last...? Oh." Daniel rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, sorry. Hold on."

"I think I've got the whole alphabet by now," Robert was saying "and I'm starting to match sounds to symbols including the stuff from the P3R-272 inscription, but I'm not certain about some of them, since it's so short. And it's in a circle, which makes it kind of hard to tell which is the first letter. It would help if we had a second piece of data, too."

Jack snatched the printout of the circular inscription from Robert's hand. " _Nu_ ," he said, circling part of the circle, then irritably tossed it back to the archaeologist.

"All right, then," Robert said. "Should've just asked."

Daniel pulled his notepad toward himself and picked up his pen again. "Jack, could you repeat that, please? Slower, this time?" When no answer came, he asked, cautiously, "Are...are you okay?"

Instead of blowing up like he had several times before, Jack plunged his hands into his pockets. " _Ego nishio._ "

" _Ego_ ," Daniel started. " _Ni--nesh...nescio._ You don't know." A surge of panic tried to rise at that, and he exhaled slowly to force it away.

"You know, I've been thinking," Robert said. "The Goa'uld posed as gods, and so did the Asgard; why not the Ancients? A lot of civilizations believed in deities known as the Ancient Ones."

Connecting the language similarities, Daniel thought about it and then shook his head, saying, "I know Roman mythology. Their gods were named."

"Yeah--but in some records, they do refer to the entire pantheon as the Ancient Ones."

"Yes, but this was centuries _after_ the Stargate closed behind Ra."

"Hey, people on Earth have seen the Asgard long after the Giza Stargate was buried."

"No, they haven't," Daniel said, frowning. "Have they?" Had he been right, then, in guessing that the Asgard had visited Earth and Hanka and other planets like Cimmeria, passing along language and religion in their wake?

Robert paused, then said, "Remind me to explain alien abductions to you later." Daniel frowned harder, wondering what there could possibly be about alien abduction that he didn't already know or hadn't already experienced first-hand. "The point is, we know Stargates aren't the only way to travel. There's no reason to think that very advanced aliens wouldn't have been on Earth recently, or even _now_."

"You don't think someone would have noticed a very advanced race of aliens?"

"If they're advanced enough and humanoid enough, they should be able to stay hidden--or maybe they left by ship or some other mode of transportation. It would certainly help to explain why a few planets' inhabitants speak something so close to English or other young languages." He tapped the inscription. "Maybe the Ancients were the Roman gods. They did develop a relatively advanced society in ancient times."

"Well...okay, fine, but many other ancient cultures flourished as well," Daniel countered. "That doesn't necessarily require alien intervention." If there was anything he had learned from the Stargate program, it was that humans could be both more obstinately irrational and also more inventively resourceful than most people gave them credit for.

"But alien intervention _could've_ sped things along. Sophisticated political processes, centralized heating systems, an intricate systems of roads, and..."

_Wait_ , Daniel thought as an idea struck. _Roads_.

"...maybe they learned about roads from the Etruscans, or maybe they figured it out themselves, _or_...maybe the Ancients gave them some of those technologies. In fact..."

"Wait, wait," Daniel interrupted. "A system of roads, you said. The Romans...they were known as road-builders, right? _Road_ -builders, Robert, and Jack just entered a lot of addresses into the computer. You think, maybe...?"

"Roads," Robert repeated, hearing the implication and already shaking his head. "You mean Stargates."

But the idea had taken root, and, low as they might be on hard proof, it _felt_ right. "We've thought for almost a year now that someone else built the Stargates, and these Ancients obviously have really advanced technology."

"Daniel... That's a...we don't have nearly enough evidence to support that claim."

"But it _could_ be."

"And it could _not_ , too. Look, either way, it's not going to help us here," Robert pointed out.

"Well, they must have had some purpose in mind for...for all this," Daniel said. "Jack, whatever the Ancient device did, can you think up a few possibilities for what it was trying to do?" Jack shrugged silently. "You were taking apart a staff weapon earlier, which is clearly not... _you_ , exactly, and maybe if you, you know, dig into your thoughts, you might be able to figure out what's going on?"

Instead of answering, Jack gave him a blank, almost confused look, pushed off the desk he had been leaning against and paced restlessly, occasionally raising the heel of his hand to his head and grinding it into his temple.

"Is your head getting worse?" Daniel asked helplessly, and then, when no answer came, simply, "Your head hurts?"

" _Etium_ ," Jack mumbled. " _Motabil._ "

As Robert opened his dictionary again, Daniel forgot about the translation for a moment as a suspicion began sneaking in. "Jack, you haven't spoken English for...a while."

As if he hadn't realized it before, Jack turned to him, asking, " _Veriumas_?"

_Veritas_. "Yes. That's the truth."

" _Derentis tua_." Striding to a desk, Jack grabbed a pencil and flipped over an old report, writing ' _You're nuts_ ' on it in regular, perfect English.

"O...kay," Daniel said. "You can still write in English, but you can't speak it. Not at all?"

"That's not impossible," Robert said. "Different parts of language are controlled by different centers in the brain. Lexicon and grammar, speech production and writing, that kind of thing."

"But how can he understand us but not talk to us?" Daniel asked as he watched Jack prowl uneasily through the office.

"Those functions are separate, too," Robert said, "but linked, of course. Most models of language deficiency show that neurological difficulty in producing speech is often associated with at least some mild limitations in comprehension, too. I'm amazed that we're seeing such a clear split in the colonel, although the effects may be progressive until he can't write or understand us anymore."

Jack didn't seem to be listening. Daniel wasn't so sure that the split between speaking and understanding _was_ so clear, actually, because Jack was answering them less and less, especially in response to long sentences with convoluted syntax, and he suspected it was because Jack was understanding less and less.

Before anyone could answer, Sam appeared at the door. "We've started sending probes to the new coordinates. I thought you'd all want to know."

"I don't understand," Robert said. "How come you don't have to recalculate?"

She shrugged. "Whatever the colonel entered had already been adjusted properly. Apparently, the P3R-272 device understands planetary shift and is better at math than my supercomputers. Speaking of math..." She walked in to peruse the blackboard again. "Sir, I really wish you could explain this."

"He..." Daniel started. "Uh, I don't think he can speak in English anymore." Jack gave Sam a sideways glance and shrugged.

"Really?" She grimaced. "Wow."

"Sam, we have a theory about the Ancients. Okay, I _maybe_ have a theory," he added when Robert looked like he might disagree. "They might have played some part in the mythology of Roman gods and taught them to build roads."

Sam mulled over that for a minute, then said, "Roads. Okay. That's...that was nice of them?"

"No, no, _roads_. Pathways to other places. A network of Stargates."

She looked from Robert to Daniel, and then to Jack. "You're saying that _they_ built the Stargates?"

"It's speculation," Robert stressed. "But I'll admit it's possible. Maybe they were trying to pass on their obviously-extensive knowledge through that device on P3R-272."

Turning back to the blackboard, she asked, "Including how to do weird math?"

" _Dichem ani otta_ ," Jack said, looking blank when their questioning stares found him again.

" _Dichem_ could be 'to say,'" Daniel said, but Jack sighed in exasperation, so he tried again. "Uh, or...ten? Oh," he realized now, since of course it would be a number now they were talking about the math. " _Ani_ is the verb 'to be,' so it's like saying that 'ten equals...what, eight?' " The ridiculousness of that struck him as soon as he said it, so he shook his head. "That can't be it."

Sam didn't seem so sure, however. "Ten equals eight," she said quietly, then picked up a piece of chalk to write something on the board under what Jack had written before. "Ten...equals eight," she repeated, staring in disbelief. "Sir, this is base-eight math. How could you..." She trailed off, her head turning from the board to Jack as if unsure where to direct her incredulous stare.

Jack folded his arms on a desk and rested his head on it. "He doesn't know," Daniel translated unnecessarily.

She replaced the chalk, looking a little disappointed until she caught sight of her CO slumped over the desk. "Right. I should get back, but while I'm here, maybe I can grab one of you--Dr. Rothman? If there's anything from any of the MALP data that reminds you of what we saw on P3R-272, or seems to bear any sort of resemblance to this language, that's something we need to look for."

"Sure," Robert yawned, reminding Daniel, "Keep the recording going. There are blank tapes in my desk drawer if you run out--left side, second from the top."

Sam started out, then stopped at the door.

"Oh, man," she said, staring hard at the equations, then hurried back to the blackboard. "I think...I think this could be a formula to calculate planetary drift. Something in the colonel's mind must have recognized that we have that problem and knew instinctively how to rectify it when he was inputting the coordinates."

"Perhaps that's because the Ancients built the Stargates and therefore know everything about them?" Daniel said, a little irritably, because he'd just _said_ that, and because it didn't really matter what the formula was, did it, as long as it meant they could dial those addresses and find help for Jack.

Sam stepped back from the chalkboard. "Yeah, maybe. Anyway, don't erase that. We'll come back and get you guys the minute we find anything interesting about the other planets."

XXXXX

" _Ego indeo navo locas_."

Daniel looked up blearily from his transcription. "What?"

" _Ego_ _indeo navo locas,_ " Jack repeated.

_Ego_ and _locas_ were easy. As for the others... Daniel flipped to the page in the dictionary with 'ind-' and scanned down the list. " _Indeo_. 'Investigate?' " Jack shook his head. "Stop me if I say it. Indicate, introduce, need, wa--'need?' That's it?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "Fine. 'I need...something...location."

" _Navo_ ," Jack said again.

"Ship." Jack gave him a telling look. "Right, no. _Navo...nova..._ new! 'I need a new location.' "

" _Etium_!" Jack agreed finally, clearly frustrated by the process. " _Ego indeo navo locas_."

"You need to go somewhere? Where?"

Impatient, Jack ripped the notepad from Daniel's hands and grabbed the pen Robert had been using, scribbling, _'I have to go through the Stargate!!_ '

"Jack, that still doesn't tell us..." Daniel snatched the pen back as Jack started to draw several more exclamation points. "You mean back to where this happened, P3R-272?" Jack huffed and sat down. That looked like a 'no.'

The phone on Robert's desk rang.

Daniel rose to his feet, reaching tiredly for the phone. "Jackson. Robert Rothman's off--"

_"Daniel, it's me,"_ Sam's voice said. _"I'm just telling you we found a planet, designated P9Q-281. Dr. Rothman says the symbols that the MALP sent back are in that Ancient language, so he's going with us to check it out. If we find anything or anyone who could help, we'll call back."_

"Thank you, Sam. I'll tell him. Good luck."

_"You too."_

Daniel dropped the phone back into the cradle and turned to Jack. "They might've found the place," he offered. "They'll keep us informed."

Jack glanced at him, then away again. Daniel cleared his throat awkwardly.

"So," he tried to continue, scanning down the bit he had written thus far, "you said something earlier about... _asordo_ , right? Meaning 'help?' That device was supposed to help the Ancients, the people who wrote this?"

No answer. Not even a twitch of acknowledgement.

"Or they were trying to help someone else?" Daniel waited futilely for an answer, then suggested, " _Asking_ for help?"

Jack paused at the blackboard to consider it, added ' _3.11 ani clavia_ ' in one corner, then resumed pacing wordlessly.

"Jack. Jack, say something." Then, because English seemed to be getting less and less effective, he added, "Please. _Comdo_ "--he flipped through his notes--" _dic..._ uh, _dic mie..._ gods, Jack! How am I supposed to learn this language if you won't talk to me, huh?"

Apparently hearing something in his voice that he hadn't been intending, Jack slowed, tilting his head in consideration, then cupped a hand around the back of Daniel's neck as he passed. " _Daniel...ani ansius_. _Nol._ "

Daniel couldn't help a choked laugh from escaping. "So that's how you say 'worried,' I guess. We thought it was _anquietas_ at first. So _'nol'_...you're telling me not to worry. A negative imperative--okay, that's good, that's great, we've been getting stuck on the grammar--" Jack's hand squeezed gently to cut him off. "No, Jack, it...it's fine. I'm not worried."

" _Nani veriumas._ "

"Not the truth," Daniel translated aloud while scribbling down a note about the contraction of the negative particle with the copula verb, because it was interesting, it was, really. "Yes, it _is_ the truth, Jack. _Veriumas ani_."

" _Ego ansius_."

" _Nol_ ," Daniel ordered, leaning into the warmth behind him. "You shouldn't worry, either. We'll figure it out."

Jack sighed. " _Na putas tua._ "

"Yes, I _do_ believe that. Don't give up yet. _Nol..._ uh, _nol abiecieri_. Don't give up." He turned and looked up into Jack's eyes. "Everyone's working on it--we all need you here. We'll solve this. I'm sure we will. I'll even leave base and go home, yeah? Show Shifu how messy your house is?" he tried to joke, even though he wasn't sure how much Jack was actually hearing.

A pained look came across the man's face. " _Indes tua dormata_."

" _Ego indeo Jack!_ " Daniel burst out, then ripped his glasses off to scrub at his gritty, exhausted eyes and sighed, frustrated more than embarrassed. "Look, okay, stop worrying about me. I'll sleep, I promise, but first we have to figure out how to--"

But whatever control of himself he had temporarily regained, Jack suddenly turned away and practically ran out of the archaeology office without a backward glance. Daniel squeezed his eyes shut, put his glasses back on, picked up a dictionary, and followed him out.

...x...

**_2 October 1998; SGC, Earth; 0630 hrs_ **

Coffee, Daniel decided, squinting into his polystyrene cup, tasted very different from how it smelled. It was unexpectedly bitter, but, after the first surprise, wasn't actually all that bad. More importantly, it was easy to find on base, no matter what the time of day or night, and drinking the strong liquid from the electrical engineers' coffeepot alongside Janet meant that he wasn't falling asleep on top of whatever it was that Jack was doing with the power source of a staff weapon.

"Do you know what he's doing?" Daniel asked her.

The doctor was watching closely, a clipboard filled with notes beside her. "Building something. I'm having trouble following beyond that."

" _On vis indee_ ," Jack explained, working furiously.

Daniel raked a hand through his hair as Janet turned to him and said, " 'It...needs...' Something. Uh, 'force' or 'strength,' maybe?" Then he remembered that they were dealing with something that centered on a naquadah power cell and amended, " 'Power.' 'It needs power,' Jack?"

Janet looked dubious. "This thing needs power? Sir, it would be really nice to know what that is before you start trying to plug it in."

An airman appeared at the entrance to the lab. "Mr. Jackson? General Hammond wants you in the control room."

"Maybe SG-1 found something," Daniel said hopefully to Jack, who continued to ignore him. "I'll...uh, I'll be back."

"I'll keep an eye on him," Janet said, still looking at the contraption being built. Jack ignored her, too, so Daniel put down his cup of coffee and left.

When he arrived in the control room, though, the expression the general wore was grim, and any ideas he had had about meeting friendly Ancients was erased. Without delay, the general said, "Mr. Jackson, SG-1 is trapped on the planet with Dr. Rothman."

Taken aback, Daniel asked, "Tr-trapped, sir? Why? Are the hostiles open to negotiation?" _Please, let those not be the Ancients._

"Trapped by the DHD," the general corrected. "They haven't seen any local inhabitants. Something's wrong with the dialing mechanism, and they can't get back."

"Well..." Looking around the room, as if something would give him an answer, Daniel said confidently, "Sam will fix it. She knows more about Stargates than anyone on Earth, and Teal'c has probably seen something like this before. I mean, it's not the first time something has gone wrong with the dialing mechanism off-world." When the general didn't respond, he added, more uncertainly, "Right, sir?"

General Hammond shook his head. "I regret to say that the problem isn't anything Captain Carter or Teal'c have ever encountered. Dr. Rothman is hoping to find signs of life or communication around them in case there's a clue, but the heat will force him to stop soon."

"But...but, General, they'll figure it out _eventually_."

"We may not have that kind of time. There are two very hot suns beginning to rise on their planet, and she believes the temperature will soon be too high for them to survive."

Daniel took a step back and caught himself on the back of a chair before the heavy ball of dread in his stomach could weigh him down. "So...but...so that's it?"

"No," General Hammond said firmly. "We're not giving up on them. We have our best scientists here and Captain Carter there working to solve the problem. But in the meantime, they asked me to tell you that they don't think anything on that planet will help Colonel O'Neill's condition. As far as that's concerned, we're on our own. Any information you come across may be our best shot, so if you have a solution, don't hesitate, even if it seems improbable."

"Oh," he said faintly, trying not to imagine what it looked like when a person was burned to death by a sun--two suns--and thankful that he was too tired to fully digest the fact that it was Sam and Teal'c and Robert out there. He felt oddly like he should be there with them--they were his friends, after all, the three of them and Jack, and they were the closest he had to a team in this society. "I...sir, I still don't have any idea about..." He trailed off.

Sam knew more about DHDs and Stargate dialing mechanisms than anyone on Earth.

Except, maybe...

_Ancient Ones. Road builders._

"I'm not trying to put pressure on you, son," the general was saying apologetically. "This may be beyond all of us, and you're not to blame if nothing comes up. I know this is hard, but I need you to focus now. Tell us if you can think of anything. We'll keep working on SG-1's problem, and I'll send for you if their situation takes a turn for the worse. You just stay on Colonel O'Neill's case and leave the rest to us."

"Wait...sir, what exactly did Sam say was wrong with the DHD?" Daniel said.

"Mr. Jackson..."

"Please, sir. I might have an idea of how to help them."

Looking skeptical, but clearly willing to listen to anything that could bring back the team, General Hammond said, "We recorded what she told us through the MALP."

"May I have a copy?"

Minutes later, he was hurrying back to the electrical engineering lab, video tape in hand. He entered just in time to see Jack flip a switch that made the contraption begin to glow.

"That's it, sir?" Janet said, sounding confused. There was relief in her voice, probably because it hadn't exploded, but also disappointment that it didn't really illuminate anything except itself. Jack shrugged again, apparently just as lost as they were.

"Um," Daniel said from the doorway, "Jack, there's something we need your help with." The man continued studying whatever it was he had just built. "Jack," he said, more sharply, gesturing out the door, "Sam and Teal'c are trapped off-world, and they need your help. _Sam a Teal'c_...uh _...indente asordo._ "

That got his attention.

"You need to see this," Daniel told him quickly, inserting the tape. "Okay, Jack, right now, only I believe you have the knowledge of the original Stargate builders. So. Watch."

Sam's face appeared on the screen, and Jack tilted his head, listening intently to the problem. Then he lunged for the desk and pulled a sheet of paper and pens and rulers toward himself, and Daniel sighed in relief.

XXXXX

**_2 October 1998; SGC, Earth; 1000 hrs_ **

It was a good thing Sam only needed about ten minutes to recover from being almost burned to death by a sun, because when the alarms started squealing, she was the first to make it to the control room. Out of habit, the rest of them followed, until Daniel turned and noticed Jack carrying his glowing naquadah-cell device into the area that housed all the power controls.

"Wait, Jack," Daniel protested as he watched the door start to swing closed. The power room was one place he usually never wandered, except a few times by accident when he had still been learning his way around. "Slow down! What are you doing with that?"

The door snapped shut, and, cursing, Daniel was forced to dig into his pocket for his ID card to swipe into the unfamiliar hallway. Footsteps came behind him, and he whirled to see Teal'c pounding down toward him. "Teal'c, he's..."

"Come," Teal'c said tersely, and Daniel obeyed, glad for once that there was someone to tell him what to do, because the gods knew he didn't have a clue for himself.

Jack was opening a panel that controlled...well, Daniel didn't know what it was for, but, to be fair, he was sure Jack wouldn't have known, either, if he'd been himself. Not for the first time, Daniel wished there were a few more Sam Carters around, so that one could figure out what was going haywire in the control room while another could come with them and see what going on in the power vault.

Teal'c made an uncertain movement as if to stop Jack from doing anything further, but stopped.

"What is this?" Daniel asked.

" _Euge_ ," Jack said, pausing to dig the heel of his hand into an eye before continuing whatever he was doing. " _Vis indee_."

"You're...doing something to the power systems? Something good?" When no answer came, Daniel tried again, rapidly losing hope, "Jack, you don't...you don't even understand me anymore, do you."

Jack inserted his contraption into the wall, pulling off what looked to Daniel like random cables and hooking them to the device. " _Euge_ ," he muttered feverishly. " _Euge._ "

"O'Neill, we must know what you intend to do," Teal'c tried.

" _Ego indeo navo locas_ ," Jack repeated.

Daniel clenched his hands into fists. "I know, I know! _Ego sc...shio_. But where?"

" _Vis. Ego indeo asordo. Indeo vis._ "

"For what, Jack? We want to help you, but I don't understand what you need!"

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said quietly. Daniel blew out an agitated breath and shrank back into the shadow of Teal'c's solid presence, watching Jack work and flinching each time something sparked.

" _Farit_ ," Jack whispered finally, panting a little, though it was hard to tell whether it was from physical effort or from trying to keep himself from going mad with all the information that was filling his head. Daniel wasn't sure he'd succeeded in that part, either.

_Naturu_.

" _Indeo astriaporta._ " Jack brushed past both of them and jogged back the way they'd come.

"Teal'c, the Stargate. He's trying to get through, that must be what he's--"

"Then we must go with him," Teal'c said, rushing out of the power room.

Trying to keep up, Daniel was almost bowled over by someone going the other way as he ran out.

"What are you doing here, Jackson?"

"Sergeant Siler?"

"There was a power boost--"

"Yes, that must have been Jack. He just did something with the naquadah power cell...thing he built. No, no, don't! Just--" Daniel took a glance toward Teal'c's disappearing form and finished, "Sergeant, please, leave it there. It's important." _Hopefully_. He dashed down the hallway that led out of the power room, calling back, "Please!"

It might be the only chance to get Jack back, the way he had been before some alien had dumped a civilization's knowledge into his brain.

The 'gate was moving when Daniel made it back to the control room. "Where is it dialing?" he asked.

"No idea," Sam said, sitting in front of a computer but not even trying to do anything. "We've completely lost control. It's dialing somewhere automatically."

"Chevron four is encoded," Lieutenant Simmons announced from the console, glancing nervously at Sam.

"This must be part of the program the colonel put in earlier," Robert said. "I didn't think he'd finished writing it."

"Oh, he finished the program; we just hadn't figured out what it did," Sam said grimly. "If there was anything he didn't get a chance to finish, maybe it was the 'gate addresses."

"General Hammond," Teal'c reported, standing strategically to prevent Jack from being able to go anywhere, "Daniel Jackson believes that Colonel O'Neill constructed a power source using the staff weapon's naquadah cell."

"We just saw him connect it in the power vault," Daniel added.

"Chevron five is encoded," Simmons said.

"Well, that explains where the 'gate got all the extra power," Sam commented worriedly, her hands inching toward the keyboard, as if itching to try to do something.

The general looked sharply at Teal'c. "I would not have authorized that."

"Sir," Daniel said, "he's been talking for hours about going somewhere. He says he needs to go somewhere, through the Stargate."

"Chevron six is encoded."

General Hammond looked around at all of them, his gaze settling finally on Jack. "And I'm just supposed to let him go?"

_No, no, no_ , Daniel thought. If they let him go, he might never come back, and they had no idea what was on the other side of the wormhole forming now. And maybe it was selfish, but he'd gotten to Earth in the first place because of Jack, and though he'd stayed for other reasons bigger than either of them, he wasn't sure what he'd do if Jack O'Neill walked off-world and never came back.

Jack didn't seem to notice anything or any of them; he had eyes only for the Stargate, still dialing through the control room window. It was as if Jack weren't there anymore. "Are you there?" Daniel whispered, just loud enough for Jack alone to hear if he was still there, but he _wasn't_ \--that much was obvious--and continued to stare like nothing mattered but the Stargate.

He was already gone.

They had to let him go, or he'd _stay_ gone forever.

"Chevron seven...is encoded?" Simmons said, turning in question to Sam. "Captain?"

She leaned closer, looking from the monitor to the Stargate as if there were mistake, but the ring was still spinning. "It's not the point of origin. What's it doing?"

"Chevron _eight_ ," Simmons said in disbelief. "Locked. Wormhole is established. Tracking now...uh..."

"Sir," Sam said, watching the progress on the screen, "the computer indicates that the wormhole is leaving our known network of Stargates. It's leaving our _galaxy_. That must be why it needed the extra power source."

"That's why he _built_ the extra power source," Daniel realized now. "All of this--it's all been leading up to this. And"--by the gods, he hoped he was right this time--"he's gone already, General, you can see that. We have to let him go if we're to have a chance of getting him back."

Jack looked at General Hammond, and for an instant, Daniel thought there was recognition in the expression. Then he turned stiffly and moved toward the embarkation room, and the moment was lost.

Daniel was down the stairs and in the Stargate room before anyone could stop him, Teal'c at his side. Footsteps sounded behind him, and the general warned, "Colonel O'Neill, without knowing where you're going and why, I can't give you a remote code device to open the iris. Do you understand?"

Jack was already partway up the ramp and didn't turn to acknowledge the words.

"Jack!" Daniel called, running to him and latching onto an arm. "Listen to me. If you do this...if you go, you might not be able to come back." When he received only a blank stare, he scoured his mind for bits of the Ancient language and started, " _Hic locas..._ Dammit! _Hic locas motabile..._ "

But a hand came up to cover his own for a minute. " _Ego shio_ ," Jack said, then peeled Daniel's hand away and disappeared through the event horizon.

Daniel glanced back down the ramp at Teal'c and the general. He didn't even realize he'd taken a step toward the wormhole until Teal'c's hand clamped on his shoulder. "If O'Neill is unable to return, you do him no good by becoming lost as well."

The wormhole disengaged. Daniel looked down and stared hard at the metallic ramp.

"He'll come back," he said.

"I believe that also," Teal'c said gently.

"Gentlemen," General Hammond called.

Nodding minutely, Daniel turned and followed them back up into the control room, where he turned to one of the monitors in the hope that it would tell him something useful that he could understand.

What he did understand was Simmons' announcement: "We've lost the traveler."

General Hammond stiffened. Daniel stared at the flashing _'TRACKING LOST_ , _'_ then turned away.

Sam was back to typing. "That doesn't mean anything went wrong, necessarily," she said, her tone determined, as if she could make it true by saying it. "It's more likely that the wormhole simply went somewhere out of range, or that some difference caused by the extreme increase in the distance is confusing our sensors. I'm going to redial."

The general nodded, then started at the sound of a ringing phone. He reached across to answer. "Hammond."

For a moment, Sam's typing was the only sound in the room. Daniel folded his arms and waited, waited, _waited_ , until, simultaneously, General Hammond hung up the phone and Sam announced, "The computer won't accept the eighth chevron."

"I'm not surprised, Captain," the general said. "Sergeant Siler says the device hooked to the power grid seems to be dead."

"Well, it doesn't really matter, does it?" Robert pointed out. "I mean, if we open another wormhole, we can send someone through, but it doesn't exactly help get anyone back."

"We could've sent a radio through, or a MALP," Sam countered half-heartedly. "A rescue team. All communications with that address are cut off, now."

"So what do we do?" Daniel asked.

"We wait," Teal'c said.

Sam glanced at them. "You know...we don't know if...I mean, we don't know how long it might take for Colonel O'Neill to finish whatever it is and come back."

Daniel shook his head in denial and repeated, "He'll come back. I'm staying unless someone orders me out." For a moment, he was afraid someone was going to do just that, but then, Hammond nodded and firmly planted himself in front of the console, clearly planning on watching and waiting as well.

Sam dipped her head a little in understanding and cleared her throat. "Uh, the power fluctuations have a lot of our systems on the fritz. I'm going to have to shut everything down and reboot."

The general's eyes flicked toward the inactive Stargate. "Can you close the iris, if need be?"

"Apparently not, sir," Sam said. "I'm working on getting back in at all. I'm still locked out."

Daniel knew that was a bad thing, but he couldn't help being a little grateful, too. _Hurry up, Jack_.

"Captain," General Hammond ordered, "I don't care what you have to do. I want control of this system back."

"Yes, sir, I'm trying."

Sinking down into a chair as well, Daniel tried not to think, which, he found out very quickly, was a futile exercise. Instead, he reached into his pocket for the voice recorder he had been using to record Jack's Ancient. "Robert--" he started, but was interrupted by a yawn. "Sorry. How do I...is this the rewind?"

"How do you what?" Robert asked, then saw what he was doing and said, "Oh. Rewind. Yeah, that's the one."

Sam gave him a surprised look that melted into understanding when he pulled his notepad from his pocket and positioned his pen to write. His own tinny voice came out, saying, _'...indeo Jack!_ ' He ignored her and continued to rewind the tape until Jack's voice said, ' _I don't...it's a locas axselo._ '

Robert, on the other hand, simply took an adjacent seat and asked, "Someone got extra paper? Pencil?"

Daniel had filled a few pages in his notebook with scribbled phonetic transcriptions and quick, approximate preliminary definitions before the familiar sound of locking chevrons overwhelmed the tape recorder.

"Uh oh," Sam said under her breath, then, louder, "Incoming wormhole, sir. Iris is still down."

The general leaned past her to bark into the microphone, "Security teams to the embarkation room. Off-world activation--iris is non-operational. Security teams to the embarkation room, all units!"

Daniel rose to his feet but didn't move, watching the event horizon as men dashed into the room, guns aimed up the ramp and toward the Stargate.

And then Jack walked out.

"Everything...seems to be back online again, sir," Sam reported. "Including the iris."

Now, if only they could be sure...

_"Nice welcome wagon,"_ Jack's voice called through the speakers

A sigh left Daniel's lungs in a relieved whoosh, and he darted out and made it to the bottom of the ramp even before Jack did.

"Jack," he breathed, almost mesmerized by the sight of a tiny quirk of a smile after a day of no expression other than frustration. "You're back."

"Do you still possess the knowledge of the Ancients?" Teal'c added.

"Nope," Jack said, and for once, Daniel decided to postpone his disappointment that so much knowledge had been lost to them. "Don't remember a thing."

"We were unable to track your location, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, you know. Long trip. Met some of Thor's Asgard buddies."

Daniel blinked. "Asgard?"

"Yeah. The little grey guys."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. They had a way to get all that stuff out of my head, so..." He shrugged. "Nice fellas. Had a little chat."

"A...chat?" Anything beyond repetition seemed beyond him at the moment.

Jack smiled faintly. "Apparently, we humans have potential. I think we're gonna be all right."

Still lost somewhere between 'Asgard' and 'out of my head' and _'all right_ ,' _gods, he was all right_ , Daniel stared at him without completely comprehending it was over until Jack took a step closer and pulled him away from the ramp with a hand on his back.

"You stayed," a quieter, more serious voice said into his ear from behind. "The whole time."

" _Etium_ ," Daniel answered dazedly, because of course he'd stayed; what else could he possibly have done?

A pause. "I have no idea what that means. But, ah...if that's what it feels like for people like you and Carter and Rothman to have so much crap floating around in your brains all the time, I'm _so_ leaving all of that to you guys from now on."

A shaky grin broke over Daniel's face, and he let himself be steered out of the embarkation room and up to join the rest of the people waiting for Jack's return.


	12. Pawns

**_2 October 1998; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 1600 hrs_ **

Daniel was dozing in the back, sprawled against the window with one hand resting on the edge of an old car seat that Lou Ferretti had leant to Jack, now that the youngest Ferretti-junior no longer needed it. In the seat, the Harsesis was happily, but quietly (thankfully), awake. Only the knowledge that sleeping at the wheel was considered a bad idea prevented Jack from closing his eyes as he drove.

Who'd have thought that knowing extra stuff could be so tiring?

Or maybe it was just all the tests Fraiser had insisted on running. Sometimes he suspected she secretly liked dumping people into large machines that spat out pictures no one really understood anyway, just because she could. Maybe it was compensation for being shorter than pretty much everyone on base--like a Napoleon thing. Not that he was going to say that to her face, because this Napoleon wielded scalpels and needles and had the authority to use them.

And, fine, he could understand why they'd wanted the extra tests, and he'd even been good enough not to complain when Fraiser had only agreed to let him go home if there were someone else there who could call her if he started speaking pig Latin again when he woke up. It didn't mean he was thinking about anything other than his bed right now, because while all-nighters were nothing new, all-nighters were not okay while alien information was trying to rewrite his brain. Fraiser had explained it, said something about how much energy brain activity took, but he'd stopped listening at 'ATP.' She could've just said _'too much thinking makes you tired.'_

Finally, he pulled into his driveway and shut off the engine. He reached back and slapped at Daniel's knee lightly. "Daniel. We're here."

" _Sa'djiriu_ ," came the grumpy response as a hand swatted at him. Then the Harsesis squealed, flailing a hand at Daniel's, and a sleepy set of blue eyes peeled open. "What _?_ "

"Yeah," Jack yawned. "C'mon. Inside."

Daniel blinked at him, then at the house, and twisted to reach for his baby brother, succeeding only in tangling himself in his seatbelt.

"Why don't _you_ get out first, and then take care of him," Jack suggested wryly, stepping out of the car himself. He reached for the duffle bag of supplies Fraiser had provided for the baby.

"Right." Daniel fumbled with his buckle, then shouldered his backpack and pulled the baby into his arms, not bothering to deal with the car seat.

Jack was about ready to drop by the time they reached the door. "Ah, crap," he groaned. "My house key's in the car. Hold on--"

"Here," Daniel said, shifting the Harsesis into one arm and producing his own. "Get the other one later."

Not wanting to move any more than he had to until he got at least a good several hours of sleep, Jack took the key and opened the door, motioning Daniel inside before letting the door fall shut behind him and shrugging his jacket off. "You want lunch or whatever, you're gonna have to find something yourself."

" _Na nay_ ," was all Daniel managed, toeing off his boots and making for the stairs and his room with Shifu while tugging the bag away from Jack with his free hand. He paused halfway up. "Jack, are you okay?"

"Fine," Jack answered, prodding him until he continued and following him to his room to make sure they got settled without any problems. "You?"

"Yes," Daniel said, dropping to sit on the mattress, still fully dressed and holding Shifu. He let go long enough to let his jacket fall onto the floor next to him, then settled the Harsesis on the bed.

"Might want to get the baby changed first. You gonna need help during the night?"

"We're fine. Go to bed."

"Is he gonna be hungry?"

"Not for another couple of hours. I won't let him go hungry."

"Is he okay on the bed like that?"

"It's how he sleeps on base. I'm not going to squash him," Daniel mumbled irritably as he dug into the duffle bag, and Jack backed off, since Daniel had been doing this for several weeks by now and surely knew what worked best. "You're really okay?"

"Yeah, kid," Jack said, dredging up an exhausted smile and backing out to make for his own room. "'Night. Welcome home."

A half-hearted, "Not night yet," followed him, which he ignored in favor of forgetting the damned Ancient device and flopping onto his bed and into sleep.

XXXXX

**_3 October 1998; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 0900 hrs_ **

Usually Jack woke first when he and Daniel were in the house together. Boy genius though Daniel might be, morning person he was not--or, at least, he hadn't been since he'd figured out how long days were supposed to be on Earth and when it was morning up on the surface. Jack wondered sometimes how Teal'c managed to deal with Daniel when they had early morning training sessions.

Then again, large Jaffa wielding sticks probably did wonders for waking up the brain.

Besides, Daniel could be quiet enough when he wanted to be, but Jack was a light sleeper, and he prided himself on knowing when people were prowling around his house, even if it was just a restless Abydon looking for a book to read. He figured getting his head rearranged by some alien doohickey was as good an excuse as any to sleep through noises for one night--he'd even slept through whatever noises a two month old baby was making--so it was the smell of coffee that woke him today.

He wandered down curiously to see Daniel sitting at the table, dressed in casual sweats and a shirt Carter must have gotten him. As usual for the last several weeks, Shifu was in his arms, and he was reading something in Abydonian to the baby, a steaming mug of coffee and a plate of toast next to him.

"Morning," Jack called. "How long have you been up?"

Daniel stopped reading and looked up. "A while," he said pushing the toast toward him. "Here's some breakfast. You don't have much of anything else in your refrigerator. There were a couple of eggs and some takeout food, but, uh...trust me, you wouldn't want to eat them. Sorry."

"Nah. Thanks," Jack said, plucking up a slice of bread and opening the refrigerator briefly to make sure whatever rotting food had been in there from before his brief quarantine had also been thrown away. He paused when he saw bottles on the door, where Daniel had apparently started preparing for his brother's next few meals. "Ah...you know how to do this, right?" he asked, pointing.

"Janet showed me. I boiled water on your stove."

He checked the drying rack and found a kettle there. "It's that powered stuff?" Sara had sniffed and turned her nose up at the store-bought formula, but Jack had pointed out that, if he was supposed to take care of their son once in a while, he couldn't very well breastfeed the kid.

"Mm-hm," Daniel said, nodding to the duffle bag of supplies.

"And is that coffee for me?"

"Nope. Get your own. There's more in the pot that's still pretty fresh."

Jack raised his eyebrows but found another mug. "When d'you start drinking coffee?"

"Yesterday. But only a bit."

Because, he didn't say, of the head-grabber.

Jack's memories of whatever that thing had done to him were vague and confusing, mostly because bits of it seemed to be missing, and he didn't understand half of what was being said in the parts that _weren't_ missing. What he did remember, though, was Daniel, always somewhere in the picture, armed with a dictionary and a tape recorder.

"I'm cutting you off after that one," Jack said, pouring himself a cup. "You're too young to be a caffeine addict."

"I just wanted to try it to compare."

Watching him take another tiny sip, wincing at the heat, Jack said, "You actually _like_ it? Just like that? Most of what I tried on Abydos was...well, not bitter."

Daniel shrugged. "It's an interesting taste. Yours is better than Dr. Lee's."

"You haven't tried the stuff in the commissary. _Then_ you'll see what bad coffee tastes like."

"Mm," Daniel hummed over the top of his mug, pulling it away when the baby reached for it. " _Na nay, sinu'ket, ne pahai'ka_."

"Getting possessive?" Jack said, amused. "Could be the first sign of an addiction, you know."

"I just fed him, and I'm not giving hot coffee to a baby," Daniel grumbled, though he didn't relax until his brother settled again and reached for the book on the table instead. "See, he's just curious. Maybe he likes books."

"Must run in the family," he quipped. Daniel paused, which made him realize how moronic that was, since he hadn't meant to bring up any of the Harsesis' genetic parents. To cover, Jack asked, "What's that word you always call him?"

"Uh, _sinu'ket_? It means 'little brother.' _Na nay, Shifu_ ," he scolded, pulling a napkin away from Shifu's hands as he tried to stuff it in his mouth.

Jack supposed he should be grateful Daniel didn't make cooing noises, but it was still a little worrisome how he rarely left the infant anywhere. Aside from crises, the only time they were physically apart these days was when Daniel was in the gym, at the range, or in a meeting with the general or some team; he hadn't gone off-world in over a month and--for once--hadn't even started getting restless about it. It was a good thing Shifu was a relatively quiet baby, because Jack was pretty sure Daniel did his work in the infirmary half the time and either slept there or brought Shifu to his room at night to stay nearby.

Of course, Jack and Sara had both been like that with Charlie, too. The difference was that Charlie wasn't temporary. Wasn't supposed to have been, anyway.

The point was, even if they could be sure the Goa'uld would stop looking for the Harsesis and that the baby wasn't some ticking time bomb, there would _still_ be problems. No way could they keep a baby on base indefinitely, not with the kind of stuff that passed through the SGC, and no way was Daniel going to raise a baby when he was still finishing his latest growth spurt. Some people on base--Ferretti and his boys, mostly--teased Daniel about mothering the baby, but Jack didn't find it funny, considering the circumstances. There was no way it was all going to end well.

Daniel took another sip and reached into his pocket. "I got your house keys out of the car," he said.

"Thanks," Jack said, and as he stepped closer to take the keys, he caught sight of the chain around Daniel's neck that disappeared under his shirt. "Hey, I've never seen you wear those around."

"These?" Daniel asked, pulling out the dog tags around his neck. "Most of the civilians don't, usually. I normally just carry them in my pocket, like Teal'c, except when I'm off-world, but I'm not in my normal clothes now, so I just don't want to lose them or forget them here. Robert does that, sometimes--once," he added, his tone amused, "he borrowed someone's tac vest off-world and forgot his tags in a pocket, and he didn't even realize them until Captain Casey found them a week later."

Yeah, that sounded like something Rothman would do, though it was odd to hear the implication that, in some part of Daniel's brain, Jack's house was still a little bit like being off-world. "So why don't you guys just wear them around base?"

It made no sense to Jack. The point of ID tags was ID. Airman, Marine, or civilian, all off-world operators knew they could be killed. That was just simple and logical; unfortunately, what went on in the civilian scientists' heads was often less so. Daniel had put a lot of effort into worming himself into the SGC, figuring out what behaviors did and didn't work among each group of personnel--he didn't always control his own impulsiveness or temper well enough to avoid pissing people off, but at least he _knew_ , theoretically, how to avoid it. No one spent as much time studying people as Daniel did.

"I've been trying to figure that out, but it's still unclear to me," he admitted, peeling Shifu's fingers off from one of the tags. "It's only off-world people who are supposed to have them all the time, so it's Robert and me and a few other translators who've volunteered to be on hand in case of off-world emergencies. In part, it's to avoid forgetting to take them off when they leave base--it raises questions, Robert says. Also, I think they don't want to be confused for people actually in the military, but I'm not sure whether it's a matter of respect or, uh, disrespect. No offence meant."

"Oh, well," Jack said, "tell them not to worry. There's no danger of confusion."

Daniel shrugged. "I'm not the one who grew up with ingrained societal rules about these things," he said primly, and he tucked his tags under his shirt and out of sight before beginning to read again. Jack hooked a foot around the leg of another chair and sat, too, and listened to him continue to read to his little brother, uncharacteristically fumbling over words every so often.

When he heard the word 'Italy' among the Abydonian, he craned his neck over to see exactly what the heck kind of book this was and recognized...

Jack blinked. "Is that your history textbook?"

"Yes," Daniel said.

"Isn't that written in English?"

"Yes."

"Please don't tell me you're translating that as you go," Jack said in disbelief.

"I didn't tell you anything," he said agreeably.

"Oy. _Daniel_."

"Jack, some words don't have exact counterparts in other languages, and we've found that to be a huge problem in translating off-world languages. It's good practice. And it's more fun this way."

"You know, I've always thought you had a couple of loose screws."

Daniel shrugged, then continued reading.

Jack was in the middle of reading his newspaper when he realized the reading had stopped. He looked up to see Daniel looking back already, pushing the book a few inches away. "So, um, Jack. How--how are you feeling?"

Wow. It actually _was_ possible for that question to get even more annoying than it already had been. He pushed the annoyance down, though, because Daniel had managed to go several minutes without asking, and he was doing that thing where he fidgeted and stared down at the table and peeked up once in a while through bangs that were yet again getting too long, and then pretended he wasn't looking.

"I'm perfectly fine," Jack said calmly. "Good as new."

A nod. "That's good. I was...yes. Good."

Jack went through ' _no more worries about my brain getting erased_ ' and ' _It's a good thing you like learning alien languages, huh?'_ before discarding both and settling on, "What're your plans for the day?"

"Uh...I don't know," Daniel said. "Reading, I guess. I have a book or two with me."

"How about giving chess another try once we're done with breakfast? With a brain like yours, that was a pathetic showing you gave me last time." He and Carter had tried to teach chess to Daniel and Cassie one weekend, months ago, but Daniel had babbled something about oppression of lower classes or something, and, come on, what was that? Now, Daniel scowled. "Oh, for cryin' out loud, it's not about serfs and laborers and whatever. It's a strategy game, that's all."

"It's the principle, Jack, and what it says about us! You line up your Pawns and make them struggle step by step through everything and into the enemy's territory, and, and, and then exchange them for people who are more valuable. How is that right? And the winning strategy usually seems to involve sending them out into battle like...like..."

"They're the foot-soldiers, Daniel. They're supposed to act as the front line."

"No," he corrected. "SG-1 is the front line. Ska--Tobay and the Guards are the front line. Pawns...they're like a human shield that can be sacrificed because they're less important than the King or the"--he gestured vaguely--"the other pieces. The Bishop and the Knight and all of those. That's not how it should be; I mean, General Hammond would never sacrifice any soldier to protect himself."

Ah. Well, there was the rub.

General Hammond wasn't the King or even the Knight or Bishop or Rook, not in the way Daniel was thinking. Hammond was the player, and the player never forgot the goal, but he didn't exactly want to lose his own pieces, either. And there were other players controlling Hammond--the President, other government entities, practicality, loyalty, and morality all warred for control over his actions. When push came to shove, however, the general knew when the stakes were higher than a single person. That was what made him the general.

To Daniel, though, Jack explained, "No, General Hammond wouldn't sacrifice us needlessly, but there are lessons you can learn from mock scenarios. SG teams aren't pawns, and we're not pretending they are. This is just a game."

"The Goa'uld send their human slaves to fight for them," Daniel continued to protest with righteous indignation. "Not even to _fight_ , really, since the slaves don't have a chance. Many of my people had family who were thrown to the enemy to shield Ra."

Jack grimaced, remembering the human slaves--men, women, even children--they hadn't been able to spare when they'd killed Ra. "Then this game's not too far from reality, is it," he said frankly, an idea forming.

"I beg your pardon?" came the incredulous answer. " _That's_ the kind of strategy you want me to learn?"

"Finish your breakfast, and then come on and I'll explain. I'll set up the board."

Daniel sighed, but he finished his toast and his coffee, reading aloud between bites until Shifu got bored with the lecture about World War I and fell asleep. He followed Jack into the living room and settled the baby in a cocoon of blankets on the couch before sitting down on the carpet in front of the coffee table, scowling at the chessboard.

"All right," Jack started, shifting a few pieces into place as they sat facing each other over the board. "The Pawns are like--"

"Cannon fodder," Daniel said stubbornly.

"Like low-ranking Jaffa," Jack corrected. "Human slaves, sometimes."

" _That's_ nice, Jack."

"No, Daniel, it's not. But you said it yourself--that's the way it works, isn't it?"

Daniel tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. "It shouldn't be like that."

"But it _is_ ," Jack persisted. "I'm not saying whether or not it's right; I'm just saying you should know how things are. Look, between the SGC and Teal'c, you probably know more about Goa'uld and Jaffa society than any human on this planet. You really think Apophis cared about those Jaffa he had posted all over his mothership? You think Heru-ur would've lifted a finger to save his Horus Guards on Cimmeria? They're all pawns to the Goa'uld."

"Huh." Daniel stared at the board, considering. "No, Jack, they _do_ care. Strategically. They lose their army if all the Jaffa are killed."

"Exactly. In chess, the Pawns get sent out as the front line, sometimes, but you don't give up any piece lightly, Pawn or not, because that's a point for your opponent."

Daniel stared at him, disturbed. "That's...cold."

"That's how you play the game," Jack said. "It doesn't say anything about what the player's thinking. General Hammond doesn't want to lose his men any more than the Goa'uld do, but for him, that's not just a tactical point the way it probably is for a snake. And _that_ means he'll play things differently from how our enemies would. Know your enemy, and you can beat him."

_Especially if you have enough guns and a few boxes of exploding naquadah_ , Jack added silently. He decided to leave that part unsaid.

Daniel reached out a hand, picked up one of the Pawns on Jack's side, and rolled the Black piece around in his fingers. Finally, he put it back, in the too-careful way that meant he was thinking hard, and touched the King. "The System Lord," he said, frowning. "Or whoever's in control of a particular planet."

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Knights--they're, ah...First Prime, High Priest, other higher ranking Jaffa. Bishops are...?" He waggled a Bishop in the air.

"Minor Goa'uld, maybe, the ones in service to the System Lord. Then what's the Rook?"

"The mothership. Or the stronghold." Jack shrugged. "It doesn't really matter what you call it. It's what the King builds to protect himself and his troops. His base of operations."

The questing fingers landed on the Queen and lingered for a second. "What about..." Daniel stopped and pulled back. "Why is the Queen so powerful, then? It's not like that in reality."

"Isn't it?" Jack answered mildly, carefully. "We have the Harsesis. Whose idea was that?"

"Not the queen's idea. Not Amaunet's."

"Amaunet's not the Queen. Not completely."

Daniel squinted at the board. "The host has the least power of everyone."

Jack shook his head. "Not talking about the host, either. This piece here, the Queen, is what you forget about and can't predict. It's whatever's behind the person in power." Daniel wrinkled his brow. "I'm talking about everything: the Goa'uld's queen, their spies, and yeah, maybe even the host sometimes. Don't underestimate power you can't see. It's smart, fast, capable, and it'll use that power to protect the King."

"That's not how it works," Daniel countered immediately, straightening and studying the pieces with a critical eye. "Some of the most famous coups in Jaffa memory have been organized by the System Lord's consort, meaning that the Queen betrayed the King, or the other way around. It's not like their consorts have a reason to be loyal."

"Well, they're...sort of...married," Jack pointed out, not wanting to think too hard about what went on between a Goa'uld and his or her consort.

Daniel clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes. "They're snakes," he said flatly. "They don't 'marry' each other for the same reasons humans do. They're loyal to each other until they build enough power to take over. I mean, look at what happened to Hathor after Ra became threatened by her. They're not _people_."

Jack had no idea what had happened between Ra and Hathor, besides, apparently, making a baby Goa'uld named Heru-ur--and, yeah, he wasn't thinking too hard about how that worked, either. He also had no idea what Daniel really knew about Goa'uld spousal loyalty, or whether he was just pulling it out of the air to separate themselves from their enemy. Jack didn't disagree, though, because they were snakes, so he conceded, "You can make your own metaphors that fit better, if you really want to. It's not perfect."

"And this assumes that everyone will do as he or she is told. Chess pieces don't have minds of their own, but people do, and so do Goa'uld."

"That's why it's a _game_." And if the metaphor was extended even further, really, there were levels of hierarchy reaching higher and higher until they were all pawns of one sort or another, serving a Goa'uld or a president or a set of ideals. "You understand the rules now, kid?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I understood the rules before. I just didn't _like_ them."

And wasn't that just like Daniel. "Well, at least you get how the game works. Teal'c just does the eyebrow thing and says that the even the weakest priest can do more than move diagonally."

The expression on Daniel's face evaporated into surprise, and then he laughed.

"What?" Jack asked blankly, startled by Daniel's rare, genuinely amused laugh.

"He's _teasing_ you, Jack."

"No, he's not," Jack protested. Daniel's smile grew. "Is he?"

"Come on, Jack," he scoffed. "I play Abydonian and Jaffa games with him, and they all have some rules that don't always make sense or pieces that only move one way. Of course Teal'c _understands_ how strategy games work. It's just a matter of whether he _wants_ to play along."

One day, Jack was going to learn to figure out when Teal'c was being serious. Sometimes he suspected that their two resident aliens were snickering behind all of their backs. Except that Daniel was snickering unabashedly at him right here, and the image of Teal'c snickering was...a little disturbing. "Well, then, why doesn't he just play properly?"

Daniel cocked his head in thought. "The games I play with him are either simple games of chance or much more realistic ones of strategy--they're fast, with fewer rules holding you back, and played specifically to learn the tactics. But chess is like...like a game disguised as a battle, I guess."

"No one's pretending it's a battle," Jack insisted.

"Well, then, maybe it's like a battle disguised as a game. It's dishonest."

"It's not...it's...Daniel, it's just a _game_."

"That's just what I think," Daniel said, shrugging. "Ask him yourself, then."

To some extent, he could see that making sense to Teal'c. Except... "Well, what about for fun? You're telling me he doesn't read books or watch movies with fights in them, if they're disguised as entertainment?"

"Only the realistic ones. Like Star Wars."

Jack tried to decide whether Daniel was joking, and only the fact that Daniel's eyes were widened a little too innocently to be innocent told him the truth. Jack decided to keep closer tabs on the influence Teal'c was having on impressionable young minds before Daniel developed a stoic Jaffa face, too. There'd be no getting around _that_ double act.

"Okay, fine," Jack said, pushing the jokes aside, "but that's the thing. You wouldn't direct an army exactly the way you move your chess pieces. This game doesn't necessarily teach you specific tactics. It's not even about the pieces themselves or what they represent."

"Then what?"

"It's about how the player thinks," Jack explained. He'd said that last time, too, and Carter had argued that, no, it was about _probabilities and, really, you could calculate and predict all the yadda yadda yadda_. But as far as Jack was concerned it was about patterns and outthinking the other person, and if there was something Daniel was good at, it was outthinking people. "The Knight's just a piece of plastic shaped like a horse, and I don't care if you call it Knight, Horse, First Prime, SG Leader, or...or a block of plastic. What matters is what the player does with it."

Daniel chewed his lip. "So you're saying it's not a war game to try to kill the opponent. It's just a board with pieces you move around to...to accomplish a goal."

_Sure_ , Jack thought. "Exactly," he said. "If you want to keep a step ahead, you have to remember that there's a real person moving the pieces around, and you win by figuring out what he's thinking and getting to your goal before he can." Learning to read people was important when they walked up to potential enemies almost daily, and if Daniel was working with translators and negotiators, he had to know how to read intentions. And a bit of strategy helped, too, whether it was moving people into the field or pieces onto a board or phrases into a speech.

"A real person," Daniel repeated, looking more interested now. His expression turned thoughtful and then dropped into the composure that Jack recognized from the occasional _kelno'reem_ sessions he'd interrupted. He straightened the White pieces lined up in front of him. "I can do that."

And he could, as Jack had suspected. Once he actually gave a damn, he could play.

The first game was short, familiarity triumphing easily over inexperience. Jack played well--not ruthlessly, but not quite holding back, either--and Daniel fell easy victim to the dangers of too much caution with not enough of a plan. The second game was even shorter, but Jack said, "Better," when Daniel finally conceded and tipped over his King.

"I lost," Daniel pointed out. "Quickly."

"You went from too passive to too aggressive. But you took a lot of my pieces with you; you just didn't notice my trap."

"No, I suppose I didn't." Daniel studied the board, then began moving pieces back to retrace their last few steps before his King had gotten exposed. "Show me what you did?"

With the idea of long-term strategies firmly in mind, the next game took a sharp turn into the painfully slow. When the pause between two turns stretched for minutes and then more and more minutes, however, Jack almost gave into the urge to impose a time limit. He decided to restrain himself, since it was Daniel's first day actually playing.

Daniel had hugged his legs to his chest, his chin resting in his knees so that only his eyes really showed anything. Jack might have assumed he was daydreaming if it weren't for the way his gaze darted from piece to piece, an occasional finger twitching as if trying to map out the next move. Only then did he uncurl slightly and lean forward to nudge one piece two squares ahead.

"That's so boring," Jack said with a mock sigh.

"I lead a boring life," Daniel retorted. Jack snorted.

The game dragged on until Jack spotted the beginnings of his own trap that he'd laid before, except that now it was directed toward him and his King. Not letting his expression change, he took the first step into the ambush, watching carefully out of the corner of his eye, so he noticed the way Daniel stilled minutely and immediately reached out to place the next piece of his plan into place. The pace picked up as Daniel gained confidence and stopped checking everything thoroughly between moves.

So when Jack began to close in for the kill, he said, "Got impatient?"

"Yeah, I guess," Daniel said, but his tone wasn't really disappointed. He rocked back a few inches and settled there, holding himself so still that he had to be making an effort at it.

Jack paused with his next piece already poised over a square, suspiciously reexamining the patterns laid out on the board. It was right there, like he'd thought--Daniel needed another two moves, at least, to really back him into a corner, and Jack only had to open his fingers now and leave his Knight just _there_ to put Daniel on the defensive first. Except...

Except there was _that_.

Jack dropped his Knight back where it had started and pushed his Rook ahead instead, sealing off the opening that he had almost left for Daniel's Knight.

Daniel uncurled and slumped, sighing, " _Yi shay_. You saw it."

"Y'think?" But Jack watched Daniel thoughtfully as he paused uncertainly and captured the Rook, which was the wrong move and left him easy pickings for now-inevitable defeat. "You set that up on purpose? Distract me with a trap I'd see and have another one waiting behind it?"

"Know your enemy," Daniel parroted back to him innocently, his lips twitching into a smile again. "Said it yourself."

Surprised, he asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're trying to teach me, so you're watching _me_ as much as you're watching the game, I can see it. I knew you'd catch the first one, because you just showed it to me and you were waiting for me to try it. So I had to do something else."

"It left your King almost totally undefended, though," Jack remarked, impressed but trying not to let it show in his tone. "Risky. As you saw. Why didn't you just cut off my offensive before I got that far?"

"I'm just used to the _keltesh_ \--that's what the Jaffa call multiple, parallel strikes. Teal'c has shown me, and it's the only way to beat him in _asebe_." Daniel gave a sheepish tilt of his head. "And...well, because I didn't see _your_ plan until it was far too late to stop it."

Because he wasn't familiar enough with the patterns of a chess board to be able to predict an opponent's moves and defend against it; what he _could_ do instead was mount more than one offensive at once and hope one would avoid detection. No wonder he'd been so careful trying to set everything up in the beginning of the game. He'd probably spent the first two games getting a feel for Jack's style, which would explain why it had been so easy to win those. Sneaky.

"That won't work more than once, you know, now I'm onto you," Jack said.

"Then I guess it's a good thing I tried it before it stopped being usable. Your turn, Jack."

So Jack put his poker face on more firmly this time, took the White Queen with his Bishop, and said, "Check."

Daniel put up a struggle and tried to run for a while, but, as he was more impatient now that he knew there was no way out, checkmate came only a short time later. "Well," he said good-naturedly as he poised a finger behind his King to acknowledge the defeat, "if these are representing the System Lords, at least I can say you just killed Apophis."

The King had just barely hit the board when the Harsesis decided to remind them of his presence.

The distinctive sound of crying baby had Jack on his feet before he realized it, but Daniel was already on his knees by the couch and was picking him up.

Jack froze for a few seconds at the sight. Daniel's back was to him as he cradled his baby brother, but even with his face hidden, he looked somehow even more impossibly young.

Shaking himself at that thought, Jack started to offer some help when Daniel turned abruptly into the kitchen, where he reached into the bag Fraiser had provided, pulled out a fresh diaper, and disappeared into the bathroom. "Sorry. A minute?" he called, like he was asking a question, but he didn't bother waiting for an answer before the door shut behind him.

Sighing, Jack prowled through the kitchen briefly, then sat back down to wait and make sure everything was okay. Daniel emerged a few minutes later, the baby freshly changed but still crying.

"It's almost time to feed him, too," Daniel explained, twisting a little to see his watch and starting to sound nervous. "Can we stop for a while?"

"Yeah, sure," Jack said, quirking an eyebrow at the idea that he might rather continue playing a game instead of letting a crying, unhappy baby get fed. Daniel opened the refrigerator, shifting the baby's weight carefully as he emerged with a bottle in his hand and pushed the door shut again with a free foot. "Need help?"

Daniel's brow wrinkled as no amount of _shush_ ing worked to comfort the baby. "I did this a few times last night, it's... _Shh, shh, sinu'ket_. I'm--I shouldn't have waited until he was upset," he added, looking almost as upset as his little brother. "I knew he'd wake up soon, but, uh...where's the, uh..." He pulled out the container of powered formula from the bag and tried to open it one-handed. " _Gods!_ " he said as he almost dropped it in the attempt, and the baby wailed louder. "No, no, Shifu, not you."

"Here. I'll do it," Jack offered, gently taking the bottle and the container away to mix it himself.

Daniel let him take it, looking even more distraught than before as he curled both arms around Shifu now. "I'm sorry, Jack. I can..."

Jack shrugged casually, making sure Daniel could see it, and unscrewed the bottle. "Geez. I told you it was fine."

"Most of the time, I can get him to...I mean, I've been handling it fine, and he's not usually--"

"Sure he is. Little buggers set their own schedule." The baby continued to cry, but there was no other answer, so Jack turned around briefly to see Daniel biting his lips, hugging his brother to himself. "Hey. Look, it's okay, kid. Sit down until I'm done over here." Daniel nodded minutely and took the nearest chair, but while one hand continued stroking Shifu's not-quite-hairless head, Daniel's lips remained pressed tightly together. When Jack snuck another look back, he caught sight of Shifu bawling into Daniel's shoulder while Daniel pulled his feet up onto the chair and curled them both up into a loose ball, rocking slightly in a way that made Jack wonder who was being comforted.

" _Kal'ma kree, shashan. Kal'ma ta'i, or'intani..._ "

Jack looked up from hurriedly warming the bottle at the sink (how could this routine still feel so familiar, after more than a decade?) to see Daniel talking to Shifu, still rocking both of them together. It wasn't singing, exactly, but recited with a lilting cadence that made him think it might be a song missing its melody, with a sort of sing-song quality he hadn't thought possible in the Goa'uld language.

" _...iti shashan handai_. _Kal'ma kree, shashan..._ "

Shifu was quieting, too, which was pretty miraculous, because Jack knew from experience that lullabies were well and good, but they didn't usually stop a baby from crying if he wanted food. It almost looked like he was falling asleep, actually, and Daniel had to break off and say something else in a normal tone of voice to wake him up to eat.

It wasn't until the baby had started sucking at the formula that Daniel relaxed slightly and focused on holding the bottle steady.

"Was that Goa'uld?" Jack asked.

"Heard Drey'auc singing it once when she and Rya'c were on base last year," Daniel mumbled, not looking at Jack.

"Learned it pretty fast, then."

"I don't remember it all, and I'm not about to ask Teal'c to sing me a lullaby, so I never learned the whole song."

"Ah," Jack said.

"Sha'uri used to sing a song to us," Daniel said abruptly. "In Abydonian, of course. When we were little, and...she was just barely old enough to be watching over me when my parents were busy, and Skaara was just barely young enough to still need watching over..." He trailed off, watching Shifu. "She had a beautiful voice."

"I'm sure she still does," Jack told him, worried when it only made the skin tighten around Daniel's eyes. "You're doing a good job with her son."

Daniel shrugged slightly with the arm the baby wasn't lying on. "Anyway. Shifu seems to like the Goa'uld song more."

"Huh," Jack said, knowing there was nothing ominous about an infant preferring one song to another, but...still. Goa'uld. Harsesis.

Daniel didn't seem to hear the suspicion in his voice, cleared his throat, and said, "Yeah. He responds to Goa'uld sometimes. I think it might just be the rhythm of the language. Goa'uld is very regular, and many of its words are somewhat onomatopoeic. It makes him calm down, so I guess I don't really care what language it is."

"Whatever works," Jack agreed, pushing foreboding out of his mind.

Daniel fell silent for a while, then sighed. "I can usually handle this," he said, still not looking up. "I don't freeze up every time he cries. I mean, I've been trying to look after him for over a month, and usually it's okay, even when I bring him out of the infirmary for a few days and there aren't nurses looking over my shoulder. I should know this by now."

Plunging his hands into his pockets, Jack hovered to one side, uncomfortable now that his job was done and he was left watching someone young enough to be his own kid trying to deal with an infant of his own, even if it wasn't _really_ his own. "Different house. It's throwing you off, that's all," he said, not voicing his thought that it wasn't always so 'okay' on base, either, judging by the tired shadows that hadn't completely left Daniel's eyes since Shifu had joined them at the SGC. Newborns and sleeping didn't exactly go together. "Look...if you're more comfortable on base, with Fraiser and everyone around, I won't make you leave again. I wasn't trying to--"

"No, I know; I wanted to get away, for once," Daniel said immediately, but then looked at his brother, who seemed to have lost interest in food and didn't complain when the bottle was taken away. "Although...maybe...I don't know, Jack."

Jack dropped into a chair opposite them. "Up to you. It's fine with me." He hesitated again, then said lightly, "And, between the two of us, I think we can figure out one puny little human."

Daniel looked up indignantly. "He's not puny," he said.

Jack made a rude noise. Shifu copied him, then giggled. Daniel rolled his eyes at them both.

XXXXX

**_3 October 1998; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 1600 hrs_ **

The Harsesis--clean, napped, and happy again--lay on Daniel's lap this time as they faced each other across the chessboard. When Daniel reached out to make his move, the baby gurgled and squirmed, so his hand detoured to catch the infant and readjust him first.

"Need a hand?" Jack asked, as Daniel settled his baby brother before finally pushing his Bishop a few squares over.

"He's okay."

Jack watched Daniel watch the Harsesis. "What're you going to do if we find Kheb?" If there really was a Kheb, and if it really was something there that would help them, and if the whole thing wasn't just a trick by Amaunet, if, if, if.

Not looking up, Daniel said, "That depends on what we find there."

"Ah."

"I mean, if we can fix whatever's...I mean..." Daniel glanced up at him. "When you had the Ancient knowledge in your head, you called him...well..."

An image flashed through Jack's mind of staring down at the Harsesis. He didn't remember what he'd said, but the feeling had been very clear; the baby was--"Wrong."

Daniel made an abortive movement as if to cover the baby's ears but broke off in the middle, because Shifu was babbling contentedly to himself now and didn't seem to be offended. "Yes."

"That wasn't exactly me talking."

"Still. I know you've all had doubts about him, about how he might be dangerous if the Goa'uld find a way to use him--"

"Daniel--"

"And I still think you're wrong," he persisted, "but I can't ignore the...the possibility that...we might not be able to handle whatever a Harsesis is or does. I mean," he added quickly, "we don't know what information he holds. Sam and Janet think it could be all the Goa'uld genetic memory, even, and Teal'c thinks that's as dangerous to a human mind as it is useful. And we don't know whether the Goa'uld have a way to use him against his will."

"Against his will," Jack repeated. He wondered what would be worse in Daniel's mind--that Shifu might actually be inherently evil or _wrong_ somehow, or that Shifu might be a good person suffering a fate similar to that of a Goa'uld host.

Daniel was avoiding his eyes now, but he nodded determinedly and said, "Thor had misgivings, and apparently the Ancients do as well. Sha'uri said we would find answers at Kheb, so maybe there will be...I don't know. Someone, or some kind of database of information, maybe, to explain what it means to be Harsesis, maybe even some technology to help us figure out just what he knows or how to handle the nanocytes."

"Teal'c hasn't heard of Kheb. If it was so miraculous, you'd think he'd know of it."

"It's real," Daniel said confidently, and, when Jack was about to interject something, he added, "The Ancients knew of it. _You_ knew of it when you had all of that, uh, downloaded into your head. And you said there was 'light' at Kheb, which doesn't sound too bad, does it."

Well, that was news to him. "You sure that's what I said?"

"You also said it was a _locas axselo_. I haven't figured out that phrase yet"--which was, in Jack's opinion, the one phrase that would come back to bite them in the ass--"but the part about light...yes, that one was obvious."

"If you say so. But the Goa'uld are pretty..." He hesitated. "They're a little..."

"...dark," Daniel said, his arm curling tighter around his brother.

"Dark," Jack agreed.

In other words, whatever or whoever was there at Kheb might be trying to get rid of the 'dark,' and anything associated with it. What was more associated with the Goa'uld than their human offspring who had been created specifically for their use?

But Daniel was shaking his head in denial. "I know you think it was Amaunet talking to us on Cimmeria. I've been thinking, and maybe it doesn't really matter either way who was in control at the time. Shifu's mother told us to take him there. Amaunet was planning to use him, and so was Apophis, so they'd never want him hurt."

"And if it was actually Sha'uri?"

"Well, of course she would never hurt him," Daniel said, sounding puzzled that it was even a question. "He's her son. And even if he weren't, he's still an innocent baby. You don't know Sha'uri like I do; she wouldn't hurt him."

_She wouldn't have before_ , Jack thought. _After everything she's been through, what_ wouldn't _she do to stop her captors now?_

Shifu squealed a loud complaint, and Daniel blinked and loosened his tightening grip, muttering a tense, "Sorry, sorry," to the baby.

But there was no need for a reminder; they all knew--even Daniel--what had happened to Sha'uri and what might be true of her son.

Instead, Jack said, "Let's assume we get the information we want and he gets...fixed or something. What then?"

"We'd take him back to Abydos. He can't stay at the SGC, and he should be with his grandfather once the Goa'uld stop looking for him and if he no longer poses a threat to anyone."

Jack nodded. "And you're okay with that."

_No_ , Daniel's eyes said as the baby grabbed playfully at his finger. "Yes," Daniel lied.

"Right," Jack said. Shifu yawned and tried to shove Daniel's thumb into his mouth. "He do that a lot last night?"

"Try to eat my thumb?"

"Wake you up."

Daniel shrugged. "A little bit. Really, he's usually pretty quiet; even Janet mentioned that once. He woke a couple of times when he was hungry or...or needed something else, but that's it," he said. "Come on, Jack, it's been your turn forever--are you going to move or not?"

Jack sighed, then made a show of considering the pieces before he nudged a Pawn forward a single step. "All yours." As Daniel leaned forward and studied the game again, he went on, "D'you get enough sleep, then?"

Distracted, Daniel blinked at him through his glasses, a Knight dangling from his fingers. "I got a ridiculous amount of sleep. You're the one who had the Ancient database in your head."

_You're the one who tried to learn an alien language for me_ , he thought, and said, "Don't remember a thing."

"Nothing?"

Jack couldn't decide whether Daniel looked disappointed or curious about that. "Not _nothing_ ," he said. "It wasn't a lot of fun, I remember that. It was nice to have a linguist with me, though."

The pensive look on Daniel's face said he knew what Jack meant, but he said staunchly, "If I hadn't been there, Robert would have tried to help you."

Snorting, Jack scoffed, "Rothman didn't give a damn what happened to me, as long as we got the language on tape."

"That's not true," Daniel protested immediately. "I mean...well, yes, he got excited about the potential knowledge we could gain from the Ancients, but so did I. And it's not like he wanted you to...to..."

"Get overwritten by Ancient knowledge?"

He felt bad for it when Daniel flinched very slightly. "Yes. That. He did join Sam and Teal'c to try to find help for you off-world. In fact, they almost di..." He stopped, looking stunned, and swallowed hard.

"Just sank in?" Jack asked quietly. Daniel nodded. "I heard. I know what everyone did for me, kid. That includes Dr. Rothman. And you."

"Right," Daniel said, then cleared his throat. "Okay. Is it, uh, is it still my turn?"

"You're still holding your Knight, so, yeah."

He knew the awkwardness was over when Daniel's next question switched in tone abruptly from carefully concerned to eagerly excited. "Jack, you talked to the Asgard, didn't you? What was it like?"

"They were grey," Jack said. "I like 'em." He was feeling particularly friendly toward the Asgard at the moment, since they'd dug all that stuff out of his head. He didn't have a clue how--and Carter was disappointed about that, he could tell, no matter how much she tried to hide it--but he didn't really care, either, as long as it had worked. A thought struck him. "Hey, they said they've been studying humans for a long time. You said something like that on Cimmeria, to Thor. How d'you know?"

"Well, Thor had heard of the Tau'ri," Daniel started, pushing up his glasses. "He spoke a language and wrote in an alphabet that didn't develop until years after we know the Stargate closed on Earth. One of the other planets we've found with human English speakers is Hanka, and Cassandra has heard legends of the Asgard." He shrugged. "It makes sense that they might have visited humans on various planets--maybe they're interested in our race. Maybe that's one reason some similarities have arisen among humans of different planets. Maybe he even influenced the development of Germanic languages on Earth, and on other planets. Am I right?"

The thing with 'maybes' and leaps of logic was that they either ended up brilliantly right or catastrophically wrong. So far, Daniel's track record wasn't bad. Jack just hoped that this Kheb deal wouldn't be the one that broke the streak. "Yeah, you're right about the Asgard. They think we've got lots of potential."

"Potential for what?"

"For becoming," Jack said, "and I quote, 'the fifth race.' You gonna put that Knight down somewhere already?"

Looking startled to find the piece still in his hand, and clearly having forgotten what he had been doing with it, Daniel refocused on the board for all of five seconds before asking, "Wait, what does that mean? The fifth race of what?"

"Finish your turn."

"Jack," he complained.

"You want the answer or not?"

Wrinkling his nose, Daniel turned back to the game. When he was finally done, he asked again, "The fifth race of what?"

"Of people," Jack said.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "What, there are only four now?"

"Of really cool people," Jack clarified, capturing Daniel's Knight and receiving a sigh for his efforts. "The Asgard said there was an alliance of races at one point. The Ancients _did_ build the Stargates, by the way."

He didn't look surprised. He'd probably assumed the theory was right about five minutes after coming up with it. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Who were the others?" Daniel asked eagerly. "The Asgard, the Ancients...?"

"Ah. The Nox and..." Jack thought back over the conversation and dredged out, "the...Fuzzies."

Daniel blinked. "The Fuzzies."

"Or something," he admitted. "We've never met them before; that part I know."

"You know, the general is going to want a report of what the Asgard told you," Daniel said, his eyes lighting in amusement, "and you're going to tell him that they took out the knowledge from the Ancient database and advised you to look for Fuzzies." He ducked his head, then let out a snicker.

"Funny," Jack said sourly, although it was a good point. He really hoped he remembered just what the Asgard had said by the time they went back to work tomorrow. Daniel shrugged and reached for a Rook.

As he moved his piece to hover over a possible position, Jack interrupted, "So you're calling it 'the Ancient database' now."

Daniel started a little and glared suspiciously at him. "Have you been trying to distract me this whole time?"

"Is it working?"

"Yes."

"Too bad. Work around it." Distraction was one of the more subtle enemies in the field. It would be even more dangerous to people like Daniel, whose job was to think about research and communication first and defense second. A weapon didn't do any good if the wielder didn't notice something was wrong. "Your poker face could use some work, too," he added as Daniel scowled hard at the pieces.

"But I don't want to poke anyone."

Jack laughed.

Scowling, Daniel very deliberately put down his Rook and sat back with Shifu, waiting.

Attempted payback came when Jack was trying to decide whether to trade his Pawn for his captured Queen or to strike first with his Rook.

"Do you know how idiotic it feels to try to say something profound about 'the head-grabbing device?'" Daniel said.

"I've...never tried to say anything profound about the head-grabbing device," Jack told him honestly, considering his pieces.

"And now you'll never have to, because we can call it the Ancient database."

Jack couldn't think of an answer to that, so he picked the Rook and said, "Check. Furlings."

"What?"

"They're called Furlings. Not Fuzzies."

Daniel shrugged and swept his Queen across to eliminate the threat. "If you say so. Check."


	13. Frater, Mater, Pater, Part I

**_20 November 1998; SGC, Earth; 1000 hrs_ **

Jack moved toward Carter's office and was about to barge in when he heard her voice through the closed door. He stopped with a hand poised over the handle.

_"... do you mean, 'why?' I..."_ There was a long pause, and then, _"Okay. I was just calling to...what? No, I just wanted to... Dad. Look, never mind. Sorry to bother you."_

Ack. Awkward.

When it seemed certain that the conversation was over, he knocked sharply and called, "Carter, you in there?"

Immediately, there was the sound of a chair scraping on the floor, and the door was pulled open to reveal the captain's ever-professional expression. "Sir."

"Bra'tac's here," he said bluntly. "Let's go."

"Bra'tac, sir?" she repeated, hurrying out of the office to follow him. "I thought he was in the Land of Light, training Teal'c's son."

"He's been going all over. He was on Chulak just now." He glanced over to see her worried expression. "Apophis is back. He's there. Teal'c's family's old home is burned to ground, and apparently there's a mark over it that means 'traitor.' There's a bounty on Teal'c's head."

Carter winced. "Oh. Well, that's...unfortunate, sir, but not unexpected--"

"And on his son's head." Her eyes widened. "Granted, it's probably just another way to try to get to Teal'c, and they're not gonna find Rya'c, but it's making people jumpy. And Apophis is trying to pick up more Jaffa on Chulak. He's been tearing up the planet, executing rebel sympathizers--pretty much everyone Bra'tac had recruited to our side. By the time Bra'tac got there, the fight had already"-- _been lost_ \--"ended. He just came to give us the news."

"All that, just to look for Rya'c and Teal'c?" Carter asked, shaking her head. "Besides, Apophis can't be having much success recruiting. Turning back his invasion at Earth, destroying two of his motherships and the armies aboard them--"

"--wasn't as much of as setback as we'd hoped for, Captain," he told her grimly. "A lot of Jaffa have gone back over to him, according to Bra'tac, and then they fought their way through the ones who didn't. In fact, the rebels who survived...they're not so sure about the cause anymore, either, and Bra'tac would probably be killed if he were ever seen there again."

"Oh, God. Is he all right?"

_Physically_... "No injuries." Jack gave her a look. "He managed to escape his former friends' attempts to bring another _shol'va_ to justice."

She sighed. "They still think Apophis is a god even after he failed to destroy the SGC."

"Yeah," Jack said. "Bra'tac's having a hard time swallowing it himself. Anyway, by now, all the warriors on Chulak are either back to following Apophis or were wiped out." He had never seen Bra'tac looking so...tired. Defeated. _Lost_. Honestly, it was unsettling.

"But why would Apophis be looking for Teal'c and his family on Chulak," Carter was saying, "when he _must_ know they're not there anymore?" She frowned as he pushed the elevator button. "And why are we going up, sir?"

"Bra'tac and Teal'c think Apophis might have been looking for something else besides just Teal'c. Something he's _really_ wanted to find lately."

It only took a moment for the implication to sink in. "The Harsesis."

Jack nodded. "Yep. That's why we're going to talk to Rothman and Daniel."

"Apophis doesn't know we have the baby, then? Heru-ur has to know the Tau'ri attacked him, and he must be looking for allies against us, now that so much of _his_ forces were wiped out by the Asgard. To be honest, sir, I've been expecting a Goa'uld to come looking for Shifu for quite a while now, but _here_ , not on Chulak."

"Bra'tac thinks he saw some Horus Guards on Chulak, so Apophis obviously doesn't still think Heru-ur's got the baby," he said. "Maybe they did team up, since they've both been knocked around recently, or maybe Apophis recruited some of Heru-ur's Jaffa away from him. But either way, whatever intel he's got is pretty shoddy."

"Unless," she suggested, "Heru-ur _did_ tell him we have the Harsesis. Maybe this attack was to get Teal'c's attention and draw us out, since neither of them is in any condition to attack us directly at home."

"Carter, Apophis is insane. If he's willing to kill his way through Chulak, who knows what else he'll do?"

"Maybe even activate those nanocytes," she speculated. "Might make it harder for us to deal with the Harsesis then."

Great. He hadn't even considered that possibility. "The point is, whatever we're gonna do with the Harsesis, we have to do it soon, or more people will be killed, and we might be next on the list."

When they arrived, Rothman was sitting awkwardly to one side. Daniel was perched on the edge of his desk, holding Shifu. While the finger of one hand was clutched in the baby's fist, however, Daniel's complete attention was fixed on the two Jaffa warriors standing before him.

Bra'tac was staring in something like awed disbelief at the Harsesis, who stared back and grinned toothlessly, his free hand jerking in an approximation of a wave. All of them were talking in quiet, urgent Goa'uld except Rothman, who looked like he was focusing too much on trying to follow the conversation to add to it. Suddenly, Daniel perked up visibly and turned to Teal'c, saying, " _Kel 'Lok'na Ko?'_ "

Teal'c noticed Jack and Sam at the entrance, and his answer came in English in deference to them. "The _Lok'na Ko_ is a group of planets whose resources have been depleted by mining."

Daniel looked up and saw them as well, everything about him radiating a barely suppressed excitement. "Oh, good, you're here," he started. "Sam, we think Apophis has been looking for--"

"I heard," she said. "Daniel, we have to figure out what to do with the baby."

"I know. Guys...Tek'ma'tae Bra'tac has heard of Kheb."

Jack took his hands out of his pockets. "Really."

"Yes--it's an old Jaffa legend. Elderly Jaffa used to go there so their _kalach_...um... _ka_. Soul. So their soul could pass through to the next life."

"It is more than a place of passage," Bra'tac picked up. "A Jaffa warrior sees much evil and is darkened by the _prim'ta_ he carries within him. Kheb is a place where the _kalach_ may learn the path through such darkness and to the light. It was guarded as a secret from the Goa'uld."

Jack didn't comment. 'Path to the light' sounded a little...hokey to him. Then again, Bra'tac didn't seem like one for baseless stories, and if anyone needed to get rid of a little darkness, a Harsesis would be a good candidate.

Bra'tac was continuing, "When the Goa'uld learned of Kheb and made their way there, they never returned."

Daniel was looking at them expectantly. Jack had to ask, "How do we know Sha'uri was the one who wanted the Harsesis brought to Kheb? How do we know it wasn't Amaunet and this isn't some elaborate Goa'uld trick?"

Teal'c answered for him. "Both Sha'uri and Amaunet wished to hide the boy from other Goa'uld. A planet such as Kheb would be the perfect place to hide anything from others."

"It is forbidden among the Goa'uld to speak of Kheb," Bra'tac added, "and it is a place that they fear above all else."

If this Kheb place was as forbidden as Bra'tac thought, it was crazy to begin with for any Goa'uld to suggest having anything to do with it. That part sounded pretty good to Jack, except that both Amaunet and Apophis were apparently prone to crazy things, what with the whole Harsesis business to begin with. Who was to say that Apophis wouldn't think of Kheb as a possibility, too? What if he'd heard that Heru-ur had Amaunet but not the Harsesis, and he knew that Kheb had been his queen's backup plan? And the knowledge of Kheb had to have come from Amaunet, even if Sha'uri had been the one to voice it; how could they be sure that Amaunet hadn't told Heru-ur about it, whether by choice or under torture?

"This is all very nice," Jack said, even though it really sort of wasn't. "But what's at Kheb, and is it a place that _we_ should also be fearing?"

"I told you, Jack," Daniel said, "that the Ancients said there was light at Kheb."

"And the Jaffa say it brings souls to the light," Carter said thoughtfully. "That can't be a coincidence, sir."

"Well, that could just be a lexical coincidence," Daniel told her. Then, as if realizing he wasn't making his point any stronger, added, "But that other phrase I told you about, Jack, from the Ancient database...I think it means that it's a 'place of exile' or a 'banishing place.' Maybe they banished Goa'uld from there, or banished Goa'uld _to_ there. Either way, if the Goa'uld don't like it, we should take a look."

"Yeah, but we've sent probes to a lot of the new planets entered into the computer by the Ancient database," Jack said, "and we haven't found any sign of...whatever we'd be looking for."

"Well, maybe that's the problem, sir," Carter countered. "We had no idea _what_ we were looking for, and there are so many addresses that we've barely scratched the surface."

"Sam," Daniel said, "that's not all. The Jaffa have a story that says Osiris hid from Setesh on one of the planets of the _Lok'na Ko_. It's a group of planets they know of."

Jack raised his eyebrows, wondering if that was supposed to mean anything, because it didn't to him, but Carter had her thinking expression on again. "That's one of the legends you told me about Kheb, right?" she said. "You said it had to do with hiding from Setesh."

Rothman nodded. "The Abydonian version of the myth."

"I don't suppose any of you knows which planet?" Jack asked. "Or the Stargate address?" Daniel and Rothman looked to Bra'tac.

The Jaffa master shook his head. "I do not. The Goa'uld do not allow its location to be known among the Jaffa. However, your _chal'ti_ tells me that you have a...map of many Stargates. I can show you the other planets of the _Lok'na Ko_."

"And, Jack," Daniel put in, "when you were putting in Stargate addresses from the Ancient database, I thought at first you were identifying Kheb. You never did, of course, but I've suspected that one of those might be the right place, since it certainly wouldn't have been listed among the Abydos cartouches."

Jack looked to Carter, who nodded. "It's worth looking into, sir. If we can pinpoint an address from the Ancient database that's in the same place as other planets of this... _Lok'na Ko_ , that might be the place."

Shifu sighed loudly and sucked his thumb and pretended he wasn't the center of a Goa'uld plot of galactic scale. Daniel looked over him at Jack.

"All right," Jack agreed. "Let's see if we get a match."

XXXXX

**_20 November 1998; SGC, Earth; 1100 hrs_ **

They got a match.

General Hammond looked from Jack and Carter on one side of the briefing room table to Daniel, Rothman, and the two Jaffa on the other. "How do we know what we'll find on this Kheb?"

"The story I have heard says that Kheb is an untouched wilderness," Bra'tac said. "It is said that there are great mountains and a single temple in a valley distant from the Stargate."

"We didn't get much from the MALP, other than some plant growth," Carter said, "but what we did see seems to match that description."

"And this is all based on an old legend told among some of the Jaffa," Hammond clarified.

Bra'tac looked indignant. "I have no reason to doubt its truth, Hammond of Texas. It was this story that convinced me, and many other rebel Jaffa, that the Goa'uld are not true gods."

"You misunderstand me, Bra'tac," Hammond assured him. "It's not that I don't believe you. It's just that, whether or not the Jaffa know of this place, if Amaunet and her host were able to tell SG-1 about it, the Goa'uld obviously aren't ignorant of it, however much they might fear it."

"If Amaunet thought to hide the Harsesis on Kheb, then Apophis will eventually come to that conclusion as well," Teal'c summarized.

"And Apophis is just nuts enough to go," Jack said. "Maybe other Goa'uld, too. Hell, Heru-ur was nuts enough to try Cimmeria; Kheb's not a long shot."

"Exactly," Hammond agreed. "Why shouldn't we just let them go to this place and suffer whatever consequences there are?"

"Because that doesn't solve our problem, sir," Carter said. "We know from experience with Heru-ur that the Goa'uld will be looking for the Harsesis. Heru-ur must know the Tau'ri were the ones who attacked him and took the baby, so anyone he's told might try to hit us here, too. Besides, if anything on that planet can tell us more about the Harsesis and what he knows, that _has_ to be a priority for us."

"The Harsesis child could be the undoing of all Goa'uld," Bra'tac said.

"You know," Jack said, "that's the second or third time I've heard something like that, and I still have _no_ clue what it means."

"Master Bra'tac has heard of a child born of two Goa'uld," Teal'c said, "and he believes that such a child would indeed have all the knowledge of the Goa'uld, as we have suspected. Such knowledge could substantially improve our weapons technology and reveal their secrets to us."

Rothman added, "Or he could be a tool that a Goa'uld can use to seize more power for himself."

"General," Carter said, "the point is, we have very little understanding of someone who could be very important in this war. Even if we can't gain the knowledge that the Harsesis carries by going to Kheb, we need to know more about what we're dealing with."

"Also," Daniel put in, "we know the Goa'uld fear the place, the Ancients didn't, and Jaffa disillusioned with their false gods used to journey there. Sir, even putting Shifu aside, that's something we have to explore."

Hammond looked around at all of them again. "You all agree?"

"The recent activity on Chulak made it clear we need to do something," Jack said, "and this could be a step closer to a solution to the Harsesis issue. It's the best we've got to go on, sir."

Hammond nodded. "Then I need to warn you all that this may very well be your last chance to act." Jack looked up in surprise. "As you know, I've been getting pressure from various sources about the boy. Recently, people have been starting to talk about taking some action."

"Oh, for cryin' out loud--"

"There are people worried about human rights, for now, but it may be only a matter of time before more people are swayed by the potential security risk--and the potential benefits to us."

"The President, sir?" Carter asked.

"He's reluctant to take that step, especially if it will alienate Abydos as an ally," Hammond said, but all of them heard the _'for now'_ he left unsaid. For all that Abydos was useful as a source of naquadah, there would be those more than willing to sacrifice friendship with an unindustrialized village if it could help them beat the Goa'uld.

"They have no right to do anything to him," Daniel spoke up.

"Maybe not, Mr. Jackson, but that doesn't mean someone won't try."

"The NID?"

"Not officially, I would think," Hammond said, though they all knew 'unofficial' was probably more dangerous than 'official' where the NID was concerned. Officially, no one could do anything to the baby without proof of anything; unofficially, someone had found a Stargate in Antarctica and kept it hidden for over a decade.

"Shifu is not under any command here," Daniel said. "There's nothing to stop me from taking him to his grandfather if anyone tries to do something."

"That's true," Hammond allowed, looking troubled, "but if Apophis or Heru-ur really wants the Harsesis, even weakened, they'll tear Nagada apart for him. There's nothing the SGC could do about that. It wouldn't be safe there, for Shifu or for your village."

"It doesn't look like it's going to be very safe here, either, sir," Jack pointed out. More than that, unless someone was hiding nifty tech they didn't know about, there was no way to interrogate a baby, which meant that the only course of action would be to neutralize the potential threat, not use the intelligence. And when the threat was a human baby, it wasn't difficult to neutralize it. "And what, may I ask, is the Pentagon planning to do with the Harsesis?"

Hammond's expression was grim. "Nothing so drastic as you're probably thinking, Colonel. But there have been...some suggestions about a few things that could be tried. For example, trying to manipulate those nanocytes in his brain ourselves so that we can question him effectively when he's physically old enough."

Right. Because that would end out well.

"Uh, sir," Carter said, her eyes wide, "that could be incredibly dangerous. Even if we're able to do it, we have no idea what those nanocytes are programmed to do: whether they'll make him age, or activate something to make him more vulnerable to the Goa'uld. Or, for all we know, they could act as some sort of beacon to help Apophis or other Goa'uld locate him. The point is, we're completely in the dark."

"I understand that, Captain. If it comes to that, I'll fight it, and I'm hopeful that they can be made to see reason."

"Optimistic of you," Jack had to say. Hammond ignored him.

"But ultimately, people are going to start talking." The general gave each of them in turn a serious look. "If we don't figure out a solution sometime soon, whether it's getting our hands on Goa'uld intel or making damn sure that the Harsesis isn't any sort of threat, someone _will_ eventually try to take action. At that point, our only options will be to comply or let him go back to Abydos, and"--Hammond nodded to Daniel--"I'm honestly not sure which would be more dangerous. For any of us."

"Yes, sir," Jack answered for his team. "Then Kheb's our best shot. Request permission for SG-1 to take the Harsesis to P9C-292. I'd like some backup, too, in case it really is Kheb and a Goa'uld decides to join the party."

"Granted, Colonel. SG-2 will accompany you."

Bra'tac spoke up, his eyes burning with some hint of renewed fire. "As will I."

"And me," Daniel said.

"I don't think so," Rothman scoffed.

"Well, think again," Daniel snapped at his mentor. "If it concerns Shifu, I should be there. And this place came from the Ancient database, possibly peopled by beings who speak Ancient--I have the best chance of any sort of meaningful communication."

Rothman's mouth had opened a little in surprise, but, when no one backed him up, he closed it and stayed silent.

Hammond glanced at Jack, who tried not to let his reluctance show as he nodded slightly.

"Very well, SG-1, Mr. Jackson," the general said. "You'll leave at 1300 hours."

XXXXX

**_20 November 1998; SGC, Earth; 1245 hrs_ **

When Jack walked into the infirmary, he was just about to tell Daniel to move it and get his gear together, but his civilian consultant (ambassador, Jack supposed; today Daniel was a representative of Abydonian interests in their leader's grandson, who happened to also be the Harsesis) was already dressed, a zat gun fastened at his leg where most people would carry a pistol and his backpack in place. He held what looked like another miniature backpack in his hands, and his expression as he stared at it was dumbfounded. It was one of those sling carrier things you strapped onto your chest, Jack realized, for the baby. The first time he and Sara had bought one like it for Charlie, he remembered getting tangled in the straps.

Daniel's eyes snapped up at his approach, and he mumbled, "Janet gave me... She doesn't like the idea of taking the baby for a trip like this, but she said this would make it easier on both of us. But I'm not sure how..."

"Need help?" Jack asked, gesturing with a hand. Daniel simply nodded and wordlessly held it out. "Ah...let's see...take off your pack and your vest first."

When Jack had strapped the carrier onto him and the pack was shouldered again, Daniel lifted Shifu out of the bed but didn't stick him into the carrier yet.

"Do you have your allergy meds with you?" Jack asked. "The MALP showed a lot of plants. There's probably pollen everywhere."

"Janet gave them to me," he said, opening a pocket on his vest to show the blister pack inside. "I already took some. She said not to take a high dose unless I need it, until I'm used to them. They make me a little...fuzzy."

"More than usual?" Jack said, but it was an automatic response. Everyone involved was humming with muted anticipation, and Daniel didn't roll his eyes or take offense. "All right. Ferretti's men are checking over their supplies. Carter's making a quick phone call--"

"To her father?" Daniel said.

Jack started to say 'no clue,' but remembered the end of the conversation he'd overheard that morning and said instead, "Could be. Why? How do you know?"

"Because...you know."

"No, I don't. Know what?"

"Really?" Daniel frowned and searched his face for a moment, looking indecisive, then shook his head. "Well, I guess... It's not for me to say, then."

Well, that sounded mysterious. Still, there was nothing he could say to that if it was personal, which family business always was, so Jack shrugged and went on, "Teal'c and Bra'tac have been waiting in the embarkation room for a while now."

"I'm not surprised," Daniel said, though his gaze was once again occupied with his baby brother. "Master Bra'tac has been searching for Kheb for over a century. And he had friends on Chulak who died, and...and _ideals_ that died there, you know? I think he's eager to find..."

"What?"

"I don't know. Something. Something to believe in, maybe."

Jack watched Daniel's thumb stroke gently across Shifu's pudgy cheek. "Never really thought of Jaffa as the religious sort."

Daniel gave him a sideways glance. "The Jaffa are indoctrinated to fight in the name of their god, Jack."

"Yeah, but this, with Bra'tac and Kheb..." This felt different. This was a different religion, one that wasn't based on trying to please god who would kill them if they didn't.

Daniel shook his head slowly, but not in contradiction. "The Jaffa of his legends believed in Kheb. Master Bra'tac believes in it. That's all that matters, right? Maybe he just..." He stopped, searching for the words. "Well, what would you do if you were told something your whole life, and...and you discovered they were lying to you, and now you were on the verge of finding something...real? Jack, the SGC fights the Goa'uld because they kill and conquer what they have no right to...but the right to believe in our history, our ancestors, our gods as we choose to--that's what the Goa'uld have taken from _us_."

"Us?" Jack repeated.

"I meant...'us' in general," Daniel said quickly. "The Jaffa and the people of Abydos. The older generations, obviously. I never lived under the Goa'uld."

"Uh-huh," Jack said, still watching him carefully. "What about you? You believe in this Kheb place, too?"

Shifu squirmed restlessly but remained silent, as if sensing something serious was happening. Daniel pursed his lips and shrugged. When Jack thought he wasn't going to answer, he offered, "I believe in Sha'uri and what she asked me to do for her son."

"Yeah," Jack said, suppressing his lingering doubts and trying to force the change in his mind from 'kid' to 'Jackson,' because brooding on what might be wasn't good for anyone. "All right, stop thinking so hard. In less than fifteen minutes, we're walking through the Stargate. If we're right, this could be a pretty damn important trip, so I need you sharp."

Looking a little apprehensive, Daniel asked, "Why...what do you need me to do?"

"The rest of us are going to be busy making sure no one tries to kill us. We can't watch the surroundings and the baby at the same time. You hold onto your brother, stay safe, and help Bra'tac try to make contact with any friendly beings we meet there. That's your mission this time, understood?"

Daniel looked up at the change in tone and straightened. "Yes, sir."

"Repeat it back to me."

"I keep Shifu safe and communicate with friendlies. Understood."

"Good." Softening his voice again, Jack asked, "Are you ready?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Thought you were excited about Kheb."

"No, I am. I just...wish I knew what would..." He glanced at Shifu.

"You don't have to come with us on this one, Daniel," Jack said.

"Of course I do."

"Then this is it."

Daniel bit his lip, then nodded. "Then I'm ready."

XXXXX

**_20 November 1998; Kheb; 1305 hrs_ **

'Untouched wilderness' was right. The Stargate on P9C-292 was surrounded on all sides by trees and other growth that apparently hadn't seen human--or Goa'uld--interference in a while. This was clearly a place where nature had been allowed to run wild. It confirmed what Bra'tac had said about the planet, and Daniel was now joining the two Jaffa in looking around the lush greenery in a kind of awe, as if not quite able to believe that they might truly have found the right place.

" _Naturu_ ," Daniel breathed in wonder. " _Nafi iwe._ "

" _Ti'u_ ," Teal'c answered.

Jack wasn't sure what they were saying, but he suspected it was something similar to Carter's observation of, "It's beautiful."

It _was_ , Jack could admit. It was untouched. It was unsullied. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Everyone make it through?" he said as the wormhole closed behind them.

"SG-2's all here," Ferretti replied.

"So is everyone else, sir," Carter said.

"Any signs of company?"

"No one has passed this way," Teal'c said calmly, turning away from the scenery to face him.

"No tracks on the ground," Bra'tac confirmed. "No one has been here in a long time."

Something in Jack relaxed a tiny bit at that and dared to hope it meant that no one had come or was coming. The rest of him knew they wouldn't be home free until they were home. "Ferretti, you and your men hold the fort. Check in every thirty minutes."

"Yes, sir. Good luck," Ferretti answered with a smart salute. "SG-2, spread out and guard the 'gate." A few guys on SG-2 nodded to Daniel as well, and Griff added, "Luck, kid," before moving away to take up his position. Daniel gave them a tight smile and nodded back.

As Ferretti had predicted from the start, Daniel had been assigned to SG-2 early on for a number research or negotiation trips, but not yet to SG-1, simply because most planets--or at least a plurality--spoke a dialect Teal'c knew. It was odd to realize Daniel wasn't just SG-1's kid brother anymore, and while Jack thought that he should take it as a good thing--that he didn't have to spend his missions being disturbed that a kid was being deployed under his command--part of him thought he'd prefer having that kid under his command instead of someone else's. Nothing against Ferretti, but...well. Their kid brother and all.

"SG-1, Bra'tac, Daniel," Jack said, "let's go. We're looking for a..."

"A temple," Bra'tac filled in.

"Yeah." He paused for a minute. "Ah...anyone know which way, or are we just gonna have to pick a direction?"

"North," Daniel spoke up. "The legends say Osiris passed through Kheb in the north during his youth and hid there." Teal'c raised an eyebrow, but neither he nor the Jaffa master gave any argument. "So, uh...north according to the sun, I suppose. Many cultures orient themselves by the rising and setting of the sun."

Carter seemed amenable to the suggestion as well, so Jack squinted into the horizon, where this planet's sun was perched. "Is that sun rising or setting?"

"Setting," Bra'tac said without looking.

Jack looked at him sideways. "You're sure? We could wait half a minute and--"

Bra'tac scowled back. "I am sure."

"The difference in the planet's temperature and humidity at sunrise and sunset causes the sun's rays to refract in minutely different ways at the beginning and end of a solar cycle," Carter explained, squinting at the sun, "so theoretically, you should be able to tell, but I usually can't by eye alone, especially on a different planet where I know little or nothing about the atmosphere."

Bra'tac looked as blank as Daniel and much more surprised, but Teal'c, used to explanations that none of them understood, didn't have trouble cutting through to the bottom line and telling her, "You have not traveled to as many planets as Master Bra'tac, Captain Carter. I do not doubt that you will learn swiftly as your experience increases." Carter beamed at him.

"North it is, then," Jack said, cutting off the discussion and starting to take point, only to have Bra'tac step in front, Teal'c beside him and Daniel a step behind. Shrugging, he adjusted his grip on his gun and fell in behind the two Jaffa and Daniel.

The conversation in front of Jack was hushed, as if no one was keen to break the stillness that lay over the land like a blanket. The conversation was also in Goa'uld, so the only word he could pick out was something Teal'c said about Rya'c, which Bra'tac answered, his voice as full of pride as Teal'c's was of wistfulness. Daniel dropped back a few steps, as if uncertain about intruding into that subject, but Teal'c said something to him, and he caught up. Bra'tac glanced between them with a look that said he wasn't sure what to make of the Tau'ri _chal'ti_.

For the first few months at the SGC, Jack had thought of the Goa'uld language as harsh commands and insults and no more. Oddly, however, the rare times when Teal'c's words betrayed what he was feeling in Jack's hearing were those times when he spoke in his native tongue. Most of those times were in the gym, instructing Daniel, which meant it was mostly just scolding, but sometimes, like now...sometimes Jack thought he had a choice of understanding his Jaffa friend's words or knowing what the man actually thought, and he envied Daniel, just a little, for being able to do both at once.

Then again, there were some understandings that didn't need words.

Teal'c stopped abruptly. Jack instinctively spun around, leaving the two Jaffa to watch his back while he and Carter watched theirs, trapping Daniel and the Harsesis in the middle. Without having to look at them to know their movements, Teal'c said, a moment later, "It is only a bird, O'Neill. We may proceed," and Jack didn't need to double check before turning back to follow them again. It wasn't until he passed under a tree several paces later that he saw a vulture perched in the branches.

There were definitely perks to having Jaffa on the team.

"Vulture," Carter said. "Is that a bad omen or something?"

But Daniel turned and said in a hushed voice, "Depends on the culture. The vulture is the symbol of Nekhbet, a patron goddess of Nekheb and Egypt. She's a deity representing...well, feminine protectiveness. Motherhood. She's said to be the Creatrix of the World, the Mother of Mothers, who has existed from the beginning." He smiled down at Shifu as he said it, a finger lifting to tickle the baby's cheek until Shifu gurgled and grabbed it.

" _Not_ a bad sign, then," Jack said, a little impressed by the optimistic interpretation, but only a little, because in Jack's culture, vultures picked on the dead. Also, there was only so far he was willing to stretch the meaning of a bird sitting in a tree. But Daniel transferred his smile to Jack, and he decided not to say anything else for a while.

Carter laughed softly all of a sudden. "Captain?" Jack asked, his voice low, too, though he wasn't quite sure why. It felt odd to disturb the quiet around them.

"Sorry, sir," she said, shaking her head. "This place is just so peaceful. I'm catching myself thinking...I don't know. Deep thoughts." She laughed again, self-consciously, but this time the sound caught a little in her throat. "It's nothing, sir," she added, shaking off whatever it was.

"Right." Jack spent another few minutes listening to the quiet, incomprehensible murmur of voices from in front of him. Then, because being surrounded by smart people didn't mean he wasn't allowed to think thoughts once in a while, too, he turned to his second-in-command. "Ah...Carter..."

And then he didn't know how to go on, so the pause stretched out until she prompted, "Sir?"

"You, ah..." He lifted off his cap to scratch idly at his head, then replaced it. "Is everything okay? With you."

She gave him an odd look. "Um. Sir?" she said again.

"I...heard you on the phone this morning, and I was just wondering if something's wrong."

The expression on her face flitted from surprised to pained and then settled back on the alertness she reserved for missions, tinged with some annoyance. "Daniel told you?" she asked. Daniel half-turned but didn't slow.

"Now, see, now I'm curious," Jack complained, because Daniel _hadn't_ told him much at all--just the word 'father.' "What is this thing, and why does everyone know but me?"

"It's nothing to worry about, sir." Her grip on her weapon tightened until the knuckles turned white, though, so like hell it was nothing to worry about.

Thinking of the way Jacob I-Know-Better-Than-You Carter had been trying to poke holes into their stories the one time Jack had met the man, and considering the little he'd heard about General Carter from Captain Carter, he asked, "Your old man's not still bugging you about NASA, is he? You got the Air Medal for saving the world, for crying out loud--"

"Colonel--"

"Seriously, Hammond could probably make him drop it if he keeps--"

"He has cancer," Carter interrupted tightly. "Of the blood. They want to stop treatment."

Jack shut up.

In front of them, Daniel started to turn, but Teal'c's hand rose to stop him, showing them that the Jaffa had heard, as well. Carter cleared her throat and determinedly continued striding forward, carefully scanning the trees around them and not looking at anyone in particular.

"That's all," she said.

A moment later, Jack said, "You probably already know, Captain, but I have...problems with my brain-to-mouth filter."

"Yes, it's broken," Daniel said over his shoulder, showing that he was still eavesdropping, but Carter smiled slightly anyway.

"You had good intentions, sir."

_The road to hell_... Well, Jack hated clichés, anyway. "You need anything?"

She was silent for a while. When she finally answered, "No. I'm fine," she was looking at Daniel, who was not-so-subtly glancing back at them. She turned to Jack, finally, nodding firmly. "But thank you, sir."

A couple of hours later, the sun was just finished setting. Jack was starting to think they were going the wrong direction, and they'd end up going all the way to the other side of the planet and hitting the temple on their way back. In the meantime...

"Hold it. Let's take ten," he ordered. Bra'tac looked surprised at the call for rest, but Teal'c, more accustomed to the rate of travel reasonable for humans who weren't slaves being pushed to their limits, inclined his head and took off his backpack to let each of them dig in for MREs. Jack squinted through the encroaching darkness to look at the one he'd pulled out at random, then at the one in Teal'c's hand. He met the Jaffa's eyes over the bags, then swapped wordlessly.

XXXXX

**_20 November 1998; Kheb; 1600 hrs_ **

Someone took a seat next to where Daniel had flopped down on the ground, not overly tired yet from the trek but glad for the respite before he reached that point. He looked up to see Jack beside him, eating something out of a cup. "You holding up okay?" the man asked.

"Yes." Shifu had been fed during the walk and was now asleep, a warm weight against Daniel's chest. He tentatively tried his own meal, then frowned at the taste. "Huh." He lifted the bag closer to see what the label said.

"What?"

"It tastes like lizard," he said, even though he knew the expression was about chickens, just to see Jack's reaction.

Jack choked. "Ah... is that a good or bad thing?"

"It's supposed to be macaroni and cheese," Daniel replied, wondering why they even called it that when it didn't resemble it at all. Sam smiled at them from over her own meal while Jack rolled his eyes.

"Another two minutes," Jack told them all. "Then we pack it up and keep going."

Daniel bent to finish his meal quickly and then change Shifu, noticing the way Jack and Teal'c sat across from each other, with Sam and Bra'tac between them on either side, so that everything in the surrounding woods would be in someone's line of sight. It was so automatic for them, and he wondered how, even with practice, he could ever hope to fit into the puzzle that was an SG team, not to mention the warriors like Bra'tac who joined them so seamlessly.

Bra'tac was being particularly vigilant--or, well...on second glance, perhaps not. He was staring intently into the distance, but it didn't look like he was seeing very much of anything.

Abruptly, the Jaffa master said to Teal'c, in Goa'uld, " _There is not much time left before I can no longer carry a prim'ta_."

Daniel turned to them in alarm, reassessing how old Bra'tac must be. The master was older than Teal'c, certainly, but Teal'c was a man in his prime. Bra'tac seemed more fit than almost anyone Daniel could think of; surely he couldn't be _that_ old.

" _That time is not yet upon you,_ " Teal'c answered, apparently thinking the same thing as Daniel.

Bra'tac shook his head, but he looked more hopeful than discouraged. " _If this truly is Kheb, then that time may be upon us both_."

" _It is not_ ," Daniel spoke up, as if he could make it so with words alone. " _No one will lose his prim'ta today. We will learn about Shifu and return safely_."

Jack stood. The two Jaffa and Sam rose immediately, and Daniel followed belatedly. "Everyone ready?" Jack said. "Let's go. Get your flashlights ready, but stay close enough to see each other; I don't want to start shining lights around if we don't have to." Hastily, Daniel shouldered his pack, shushing Shifu when he stirred, and fell in again between Bra'tac and Teal'c.

" _We shall see_ ," Bra'tac said, then started off.

Daniel had only met Bra'tac once before, and he remembered spending most of that time on his knees, begging for Bra'tac's help, or grinning like an idiot after being put in the sarcophagus. It was difficult now to look at the Jaffa master without flushing in embarrassment, because he had hardly been a model of composure the last time. It didn't help that the Bra'tac who had stumbled onto Earth this morning had been nothing like the rock of strength and confidence that Daniel associated with Teal'c's _tek'ma'tae_ , or that Bra'tac didn't seem to know what to make of him, either, except that he was Teal'c's student on Earth.

Now, the elder Jaffa asked him, " _What bond do you have to the Harsesis child, Daniel Jackson of Tau'ri?_ "

He hesitated, searching for accusation in the sharp eyes, but there was only curiosity. " _My sister was taken to be the host for Amaunet_ ," he said finally, knowing Bra'tac would follow the explanation to its logical conclusion.

Sure enough, Bra'tac turned his head sharply and said, " _The queen of Apophis. The Harsesis is her son. Then that is why Hammond of Texas allowed you to accompany us._ "

Daniel opened his mouth to protest, but Teal'c answered for him. " _That is not the sole reason, old friend. Daniel Jackson accompanies us as a scholar._ "

The closest Goa'uld phrase Daniel knew for 'scholar' translated literally as 'priest of learning.' There was no word that fit exactly, and he didn't need to ask why; he knew how all scholars had been banned from Abydos under Goa'uld rule, and he supposed those values would have been transmitted to the Jaffa warrior classes. Teal'c could write and had learned the phonetic Roman script relatively easily, and Bra'tac could probably read Goa'uld, too, but only because they had both been First Prime. It was as forbidden for most Jaffa warriors as it was for human slaves.

Even Teal'c, who was respectful and even awed at times around Tau'ri scientists, held the barest hint of contempt in his voice when he taught Daniel about the Jaffa priest class. A human scholar was someone who could be highly honored, but, to a Jaffa warrior, a Jaffa who could not fight was weak, and to be weak was to be as good as dead. Teal'c never said that himself, of course, and he'd probably deny thinking it about priests, but Daniel thought he could hear the sentiment between the words.

Perhaps if Teal'c had been a Jaffa priest, Daniel would have learned instead that the warrior classes were too unintelligent to be priests or some such nonsense. The fact was that both held equal power under Goa'uld rule; he suspected everything else was a matter of personal bias. It wasn't so different between warriors and scholars of the SGC.

Sure enough, Bra'tac was frowning at the thought of a scholar who traveled with the warriors.

" _Among the humans of the Tau'ri, those who devote their lives to knowledge and learning are highly revered, even above warriors_ ," Teal'c explained. " _When we travel through the chaapa'ai with such a person, the warriors may lay down their lives to protect the scholar._ "

" _That is too simple,_ " Daniel countered, because the disdain that some of the civilian researchers held for the military personnel seemed to apply the other way, too. " _They have different roles but equal status. From what I have seen, it depends on who and where._ "

" _From what you have seen?_ " Bra'tac repeated. " _You do not know the ways of your own people, Daniel Jackson?_ "

" _It was only a year ago that I first stepped foot onto the Tau'ri planet,_ " Daniel explained, remembering belatedly that he'd allowed the Jaffa master to assume he was from Earth to gain his help in defeating Apophis and Klorel. " _I was born of Tau'ri blood, but raised as an Abydon._ "

" _Abydos!_ " Bra'tac said, surprised and clearly recognizing the name.

" _Indeed_ ," Teal'c said, " _Colonel O'Neill and the parents of Daniel Jackson were those who brought death to the false god Ra._ "

" _Then you are the son of great warriors_ ," Bra'tac said. The increased interest in his eyes made Daniel start to understand just why Jack hated the convoluted myths of O'Neill, Hero of Abydos.

He shook his head, correcting, " _I am the son of great scholars; they wished to end fighting, not continue it. I believe those who study knowledge and those who study battle must work together if we are to defeat the enemy._ "

Bra'tac cast a thoughtful look at Sam. " _And so it is that the Tau'ri choose to do both._ "

" _There are those who are both, like Sam._ " He pointed back to where Sam and Jack walked. " _She is one of our best scholars as well as a proven warrior_. _I choose to help however I can. For instance, I knew from studying legends that the temple of Kheb lies to the north, and...and I think I was right!_ " Triumphantly, excitedly, apprehensively, he squinted into the distance. " _Is that it, Tek'ma'tae?_ "

" _I cannot believe it_ ," Bra'tac breathed, his Jaffa eyes fixing easily on the structure that Daniel could barely make out through the night and the thick growth around them. " _After so many years, I see it at last. We have truly found Kheb_."

"Jack," Daniel called. The two Tau'ri pulled even with the rest of the group. "Look--the temple."

"Sweet," Jack said, picking up the pace. "Let's go."

The crackling of the radio on Daniel's shoulder made him jump, and Major Ferretti's voice came through.

_"Colonel, this is Ferretti--we've got a problem."_

Shifu's eyes opened, and Daniel really, really hoped he wouldn't start crying, even as they turned to watch Jack answer the hail.

"Go ahead, Major."

_"We spotted two death gliders passing over our position. It looks like they were going the same direction as you."_

"Crap," Jack muttered, then replied, "Were you seen?"

_"No, sir, I don't think so, but they're headed your way. If others came from somewhere else, we might not even know it--there could even be some Jaffa on foot that got off those ships. We can start toward you and give you a hand."_

"Negative," Jack ordered. "You'll never get here before they do. Hightail it back through the 'gate and request backup."

_"Yes, sir. Ferretti out_."

"Anyone miss that?" Jack asked, dropping his hand from the radio and raising his gun instead.

"We heard," Bra'tac answered, a light gleaming in his eyes. "We are nearly at the temple--let us proceed quickly and seek sanctuary there."

"You sure that's our best bet?" Jack replied.

A twig snapped.

All five of them shrank back into the dark forest, weapons rising warily. Daniel wrapped his left arm around Shifu, preparing to run if necessary, and pulled out the _zat'nik'tel_ on his leg with his free hand. Jack was crouching on his left, Teal'c on his right, and Sam and Bra'tac flanking them on either side, and all Daniel could think was that one whimper from Shifu was going to give them all away.

In the distance, a deep voice called, " _Kree ko, Jaffa!_ "

Gooseflesh prickled at Daniel's arms as he heard answering six distinct cries of " _Kel sha_ " and leaves rustling from where they had been only a minute ago. Gods, how many were there, and how had they not known?

A stream of orders followed. Jack glanced at him and the two Jaffa, his expression hesitant but frustrated; he needed information and Teal'c was too far away to pass it along, Daniel shifted enough until he was right next to Jack's ear. Remembering from training sessions with SG-2 to take care to muffle his sibilants, he whispered, "They heard us. Search teams."

"What Goa'uld?" Jack said, almost too quietly to hear.

Daniel turned to his other side, where Teal'c and Bra'tac had already heard and were talking with tiny flashes of fingers, the hand signals used by Jaffa warriors on Chulak that Daniel had never bothered to learn. He would learn it, he decided, if-- _when_ \--they got back home. It didn't matter, though, because then Teal'c touched Daniel's arm to draw his attention, tapped his Serpent brand, shook his head.

"Not Apophis," Daniel relayed in a whisper. "Don't know." Jack nodded and gestured for total silence.

After a moment, the footsteps began moving away. When Bra'tac straightened from his crouch, Daniel took it as a sign that they were out of earshot and said quietly, "Jack, we don't know how many are between us and the Stargate, but we're close to the temple."

"You're asking me to bet our lives on something we hope _might_ be there that _might_ be able to help us and _might_ not try to kill us as soon as we step in?" Jack hissed.

"Yes!" Daniel whispered, filling the word with as much faith as he could, because it was all they had now. "That's what I'm asking."

A mechanical whining sound in the distance made Daniel look up. The _udajeet_ were coming. However many Jaffa were there now, more would land soon. Who knew how many would be coming after them then?

"Temple might be our only option, sir," Sam said quietly.

Jack exhaled hard, his face unreadable in the dark. "On my word, move toward the temple."

"They won't shoot the Harsesis," Daniel said, fear and excitement beginning to pound through him. "If I'm between you and the Jaffa, you might be--"

"Negative," Jack snapped. "They can still shoot you in the back. Stay with Teal'c and Bra'tac and follow their orders until we catch up with you. You two"--his eyes flicked from one Jaffa to the other--"lead the way and--"

"We will protect the child, O'Neill," Bra'tac said, his gaze saying he meant Shifu while Teal'c moved a reassuring step closer to Daniel.

"Carter and I'll be right behind you. Avoid detection unless you're forced to fire, and then stay low and run like hell. Daniel, cover the baby's mouth if you have to, just leave him room to breathe. Ready?"

They quieted again as a glider came into view, passing by their position but sweeping the skies overhead, as if searching.

Ready, ready, ready...

_"Go!"_

Daniel still started when Teal'c's hand propelled him forward, and he stumbled a little as he tried to keep up with the two Jaffa's stronger, faster bodies, hating the knowledge that they were slowing themselves for him. Shifu finally started to whimper, and, in desperation, Daniel whispered fiercely to him, " _Kal shak, shek kree, kal'ma--shashan!_ "

Shifu obeyed and fell silent again, closing his eyes as if in sleep, because he responded to Goa'uld sometimes, and Daniel had a few, dizzying moments to think that, gods, maybe something in the baby did have Goa'uld knowledge, after all.

Then he was tripping over tree roots (how in the gods' names did the Jaffa keep their balance, on uneven ground and in the dark, no less?), only to be caught by a strong hand that pulled him forward again.

The walls surrounding the temple were in sight before them, but more rustling came from around them on all sides. " _Ar'ee! Yahs!_ " Bra'tac hissed, and Daniel stopped and crouched low, itching to move forward and run to the temple that was almost within reach. Somewhere in front of them, a shadow moved, then paused, as if searching, then continued on. He could make out two more behind the first before the enemy Jaffa blended together and he could no longer tell one shadow apart from the other.

He turned at the sound of rustling from behind, but the way the two approaching figures held their arms meant they were wielding guns ( _submachine gun, MP5_ , he mind recited automatically from Jack's lessons) instead of staff weapons. Soon he could hear Jack's prowling steps and Sam's quiet breathing.

"Stay in two groups," Jack said, barely loud enough to hear. They shifted apart, Daniel following Teal'c's movements, with Bra'tac shadowing them both. "Make for the temple. Take cover when you can."

They rose slowly and crept toward the temple's walls. Daniel stared out into the night, moving from tree to tree when Teal'c's shadow moved and wondering how he was supposed to shoot at an enemy when he could barely see even a few meters in front of his own face.

Then the first shot rang out and he understood, because it wasn't the movements they were aiming for; it was the crackle of electricity from a priming staff weapon.

Daniel dropped behind a tree, clutching Shifu, just as Teal'c fired his staff weapon and a Jaffa in the distance dropped to the ground. " _Nok_ ," Bra'tac whispered, and they ran ahead again. They froze at a rustling sound to one side, then continued when they saw Jack creep forward and stop, signaling someone behind him--Sam--to go.

" _Jaffa!_ "

They whirled. This time Daniel was the first to fire in the direction of an enemy's staff weapon, his _zat'nik'tel_ discharging almost before he knew he was squeezing the trigger, but it didn't matter if he was aiming, because the second bolt of crackling blue energy lit the Jaffa's armor nonetheless. Then shouts came from around them as well, and he was forced to duck down as blasts were suddenly fired from all sides.

"Move, now!" Jack's voice called. "The temple!"

"We're surrounded!" Sam's said from several meters away. Daniel found himself caught between Teal'c and Bra'tac, firing at every distant burst of light. "They've cut us off! Herding us to--" Daniel missed the rest of the sentence as another shot was fired next to his ear and gunfire drowned out her voice

He followed Teal'c, shuffling backward between bursts of fire, and jumped when his back hit something solid. "Down, stay _down_ ," Jack said, then pushed him low again to fire over his head as bullets flew in one direction and staff energy from all others. Daniel stayed close to the ground, hugged Shifu, and raised his eyes. He snaked an arm out from around the large boulder he was using as cover and squeezed his trigger over and over, not truly aiming but not needing to when they were clumped together now and so thoroughly surrounded, until a rumble of thunder sounded and made him stop and look up.

_Thor_ , he thought wildly, but that wasn't right; there was no Asgard ship filling the sky.

" _Daniel Jackson, kree!_ " Bra'tac barked, and Daniel paid attention and raised his _zat'nik'tel_ again, looking for fire and light that might tell him where to shoot...

Lightning ripped through a tree in front of him.

Daniel couldn't hold back a cry as the flash seared into his eyes, momentarily blinding him, and he lowered his weapon in favor of clutching Shifu more tightly to himself. He bent low over his baby brother as a shield, his eyes still watering from the flash, and he could _feel_ the heat, feel the pulsing in the air like nature itself was angry. A frustrated yell came from Sam and a curse from Jack, but all other noise was soon buried in the roar of thunder and sizzling of lightning and Shifu crying and _screams and screams and screams_ from--

\--from the enemy Jaffa.

What?

A loud _crash!_ sounded, not like thunder, but like some hard impact that literally shook the ground under their feet. Daniel staggered. His eyes snapped up in surprise.

The screams of the Jaffa were gone, he realized, and there was only the sound of the storm roaring around them and Shifu's distressed wailing next to his ear. A tiny hand clutched at his jacket, and he wrapped one hand more securely around the baby's head.

And there was an _udajeet_ on the ground, its remains blackened and smoking. In the sudden, dazzling light that surrounded them, he could make out a shadow of a falcon. Heru-ur's ships, then. Had he found out from Amaunet where the baby would be taken? Or was this--

Wait. Light? Why was there light?

Something overhead was illuminating the night sky like a midday sun.

Daniel squinted through the whipping wind and the spots of light still dancing in front of his eyes and saw a bright...something hovering above them. No one was firing a weapon anymore, either at or from their tight group, but what had happened to the Jaffa, and that death glider, and what in the name of the gods was _that_ thing floating above them? He tried to make out what was causing it, and...

_Ay naturu_.

Not 'what,' but 'who.' There was an indistinct face in the midst of the light. Whatever it was, it was some kind of _being_.

"Daniel!" Jack yelled over the wind, and Daniel looked over and blinked until he could see the blurry forms of his companions still standing their positions, Sam rubbing her eyes on her sleeve and Jack shaking his head dazedly. "Okay?"

"Yes!" Daniel heard himself yell back, pressing close enough to feel the heat of their bodies. "What's going on?"

"You will not be harmed," an unfamiliar, calm voice said.

Daniel had a moment to wonder at the fact that it was English before he felt his companions stiffen simultaneously, and Teal'c and Bra'tac both moved between him and this new arrival whom they hadn't noticed before. He pressed Shifu's body against his chest with one hand and raised his _zat'nik'tel_ again, edging forward so he could see better. The bright life form didn't waver, but there was a man who stood just outside the temple walls. Daniel squinted around Teal'c's shoulder, trying to see and bring the figure into focus but all he could see from here was a blur of red against the white walls, half hidden in shadows and half obscured by the glare emitted by the bright...thing overhead.

The man didn't so much as twitch at the weapons suddenly aimed toward him.

When no one said anything, Daniel called out, trying to sound as friendly as he could while yelling and holding a weapon on the other person, "We are peaceful explorers from Tau'ri. We do not mean to hurt anyone, but..."

"You were not the aggressors here," the man said, his voice somehow carrying clearly even though he didn't seem to be raising it. "Lower your weapons."

Shifu stopped crying.

Daniel had a sudden terrible image that he'd hurt his brother, but a glance downward showed that Shifu was simply lying still against his chest, yawning tiredly. Daniel relaxed slightly.

Jack did not. "Where did you come from!" he demanded, still shouting over the storm. Daniel glanced at him, and, seeing that his gun was still raised, didn't lower his own weapon. The two Jaffa's staff weapons were aimed upward, as if ready to shoot the odd glowing form still hovering over them. "What did you do, and what is that thing? Are you doing that?"

"I have been here for some time," the man said. He must be some sort of temple guardian, Daniel decided; he would know what to do. But they had run to the temple amid gunfire, and they would need to gain his trust. "All that was done here was the work of the Mother. You are in no danger that you do not pose yourself."

There was a pause, and then Jack called, "Excuse me?"

"The Mother has been watching you. She will harm only those who seek to harm."

_Sha'uri_ , Daniel thought when he heard 'mother,' but that wasn't right, for either her or Amaunet. Then, _Nekhbet_ , but no, there was no vulture here, and no false-god Goa'uld who could bring an _udajeet_ out of the sky with a bolt of lightning. Who on this planet could have such power?

He looked up again and saw the face on the light-based life form resolve slightly into what could be a woman's features. "Is that her?" he asked as loudly as he could, shaking windblown strands of hair from his eyes. "Is that the Mother?"

The man swept a hand slowly before his body. "She is everything--everywhere."

The Mother, everywhere... "Nature," Daniel whispered. He found his eyes drawn upward toward the light filling the sky, focusing on the woman's face that seemed to be staring directly at him. More loudly, to make himself heard over the wind, he repeated, "Nature! Jack, almost every culture has a patron matriarch representing nature. This must be some embodiment of Mother Nature!"

"So?" Jack said, not taking his eyes from the serene man before them.

What force was more powerful than nature itself, after all, in a land where nature ran free and wild? He glanced to the side and caught a glimpse of a line of dead Jaffa on the ground.

_("...no danger that you do not pose yourself...")_

Daniel retracted his _zat'nik'tel_ and lowered it. " _Cha'hari_ ," he called to them. " _Tal bet._ "

" _Chal'ti_..." Teal'c growled in warning as Jack gave him a confused, sideways glare.

"You have to lower your weapons," Daniel insisted.

"The hell I will," Jack retorted.

Daniel steeled himself, then darted forward in front of Jack's weapon and pushed it downward with a free hand, knowing it was dangerous, knowing he was out of line, but knowing they had to _put their weapons down_ or they'd all be dead in a second.

"Jesus!" Jack swore, jerking back with his face completely white. From anger, Daniel assumed, but this was more important than having Jack angry at him for a while. Out of line, yes, but this was about all of their lives this time.

"Jack, you said it yourself--something killed those Horus Guards, and who do you think that was? If that man and the Mother have been watching us, they could have killed us at any time. They're the only ones stopping _us_ from being struck by lightning, too, but they're giving us a chance. We have to show them we're trustworthy." Sam glanced uneasily at Jack and Teal'c at Bra'tac, but no one moved. " _Please_."

A clap of thunder rang out like a gunshot, sounding so close that Daniel flinched. Jack's eyes flicked upward, where the light pulsed almost angrily and drew closer until it--she?--became painfully bright.

It was Bra'tac, though, who had been waiting his whole life for something real to believe in, and he surrendered first, deactivating his staff weapon and planting it at his side. "You must do it."

Finally, Jack relented and lowered his gun. Sam and Teal'c followed.

The wind stilled. Daniel almost thought he saw the blindingly bright form--the Mother--smile before she pulled back away from them, taking the light with her, and disappeared behind the walls surrounding the temple. The clouds cleared away, revealing stars as pure as Daniel had ever seen them on any planet. His breath caught, and he glanced down to see Shifu staring upward as well, a hand snaking out of the carrier to reach for the heavens.

In the quiet darkness that remained, the monk inclined his head and gestured toward the entrance of the temple courtyard in welcome. "Now, your journey may begin."


	14. Frater, Mater, Pater, Part II

**_13 November 1998; Temple of Kheb; 1700 hrs_ **

"Put your weapons down," Daniel repeated, like he was working out a puzzle and not asking them all to leave themselves completely defenseless. To be fair, he sounded so distracted Jack didn't think he realized he was repeating himself. On the other hand...

Jack clenched his fists and breathed out carefully through his nose. "We're not even touching our weapons, Daniel." If he had been, he had no doubt that he would have found an Abydon with absolutely no common sense whatsoever standing in front of his gun, and, god _dammit_ , what the hell was wrong with him? As he watched, however, Daniel was not only returning his zat to its holster but also pulling the damn thing off his leg entirely. "Daniel?"

Daniel paused. "Jack?"

The monk was watching them without a word, as if to see what they would do, so Jack forced his tone light as he asked, "Whatcha doing?"

As if noticing only then that no one else was taking off any gear, Daniel gave him a pleading look, balancing Shifu against his hip as he put the zat on the ground. His eyebrows did an intricate little dance, complete with occasional glances in the direction of the temple and the warden. "Jack..."

" _No_ , Daniel," Jack insisted.

"Can't shoot a storm cloud," Daniel pointed out in a lowered voice.

Carter glanced at him and tilted her head silently in that ' _it's a good point, sir_ ' way. "I don't want to hear it, Captain," he told her.

"Yes, sir," she said, unperturbed, though her expression said she was still thinking it very strongly. Bra'tac looked like he thought they might possibly all be crazy, but he lay his staff weapon carefully on the ground beside Daniel's zat and didn't comment.

"Jack," Daniel said again, quietly, "you gave me orders to communicate with the beings on this planet. There's no reason for that to have changed just because those beings somehow speak English, and I am _certain_ that weapons won't help us."

Jack was already regretting having done any such thing.

"You saw what happened out there," Daniel insisted. "I know what you think of me, but I'm not being reckless, not this time. If"--he glanced over at the monk and dropped to a whisper--" _he_ wants to kill us, nothing we have with us will stop him, except good will. He hasn't harmed us yet, and we shouldn't--"

The radio crackled to life on Jack's shoulder. _"Sierra Golf one niner, this is Sierra Golf two niner. Do you copy?_ "

Jack reached up automatically to answer, not looking away. "Loud and clear, Major. We're all good here; you can relax."

_"Sir,"_ Ferretti's voice said, sounding spooked, _"there are dead bodies littering the ground where we came through. They were fried by something, and bad, like no weapon damage we've ever seen before. Look like Jaffa--Horus symbol. It's like they were hit by lightning."_

The monk was still watching. "That's because they are, and they were," Jack said.

_"Sir?"_

"They're Horus Guards who got struck by lightning. As a group."

There was a pause, and then, _"What the hell?"_

"We'll explain when we get back," Jack settled on saying. "Whoever you guys brought with you--just stay at the 'gate. We've met some"--he eyed the monk--"nice folks, and we're sticking around here for a while. Check back in three zero minutes."

_"Roger, sir."_

"Oh, and..." Boy, was this going to sound dumb. "If a storm starts gathering, you'll want to put down your weapons."

_"...Colonel, say again?"_

"Yeah, I know. Just..." Jack glanced at Daniel. "Just trust us on this one, Lou. In fact, I'm making that an order."

_"Yes, sir. Ferretti out."_

Apparently, however this monk guy was controlling the weather, he had been busier than they'd realized. Where had that glowy thing gone, anyway?

Carter stepped toward him and said quietly, "He's not a Goa'uld, sir."

"How can you tell?"

She gave him an odd look, then said simply, "Jolinar. No symbiote."

Ah, right. Jack kept forgetting about that side effect.

So, because he'd feel like an ass if he got struck down by lightning for holding a weapon, Jack unclipped his submachine gun and motioned to his team to do the same with their arms. But that wasn't all; no, of _course_ not, because there was also the issue of--

"Put no barriers between you and where you are," the monk said.

"We...excuse me?" Daniel said uncertainly.

"I believe he wishes us all to take off our boots," Bra'tac said.

"Ah..." Jack said, still finding it disconcerting how the usually straightforward Jaffa master was so willing to go along with all of this. "Nah, I don't...think so."

Daniel, on the other hand, was all too eager to kick off his boots, and Jack was reminded of the alien boy they had brought back to Earth a year ago, who read hieroglyphs and couldn't remember not to walk barefoot around the base. "Okay," Daniel said, carefully sliding his arms out of his pack so he could pull a restless Shifu out of the carrier and hold him more comfortably.

Jack was on the verge of telling him not to do that, because who knew if they'd have to start running again, except he had a feeling that wouldn't be much of an issue as far as the Horus Guards were concerned. As for the monk and the glowy thing, he'd relax when he knew how the monk was controlling the Mother at all.

On second thought, he'd relax when they were out of range of the death clouds.

The monk turned to him, Carter, and Teal'c again, and Jack repeated, "We're good. Trust me, we had a long walk. We're not doing anyone any favors by taking these babies off."

"When the mind is opened," the monk said, "the spirit is freed, and the body matters not."

O...kay. Well, Jack was pretty keen on keeping his spirit right where it was, thank you very much, and his body was pretty useful for that whole being alive thing. "I'm just saying."

"Do you seek oneness with Desala?" the monk asked.

"Desala?" Jack found himself looking to Daniel for a translation.

Daniel shook his head. "I don't know. I don't even recognize..." The two Jaffa seemed lost, as well. "What is Desala?" he asked.

"Desala is everything," said the monk.

"I thought that was the Mother," Carter said, confused.

"Or is that her name?" Daniel asked. "Desala?"

"A man may wear many coats, but he is still a man."

Jack thought about that for a second, then said, "What?"

"I'm sorry," Daniel said, "it's just that we've come a long way to try to find some answers. Will you please at least hear out our questions?"

"Your journey has only begun," the monk told him. "You seek the end before you have set foot upon the path."

Daniel opened his mouth, blinked, and closed it again, the calm expression beginning to fray. "I don't understand what I should be doing instead."

Silently, Jack agreed. Subtlety was one thing, but this...this was downright cryptic.

"The doors must be opened before light can enter."

Jack bit back an impatient retort, but it was wasted effort, because Daniel's frustration leaked through audibly when he finally asked, " _What_ doors?"

Bra'tac stepped in, then. "Perhaps it is we who must open the door and enter, O'Neill. The being of light we observed also entered into here." He gestured toward the temple, not quite able to hide the eager longing in his eyes. At the monk's nod, the elderly Jaffa raised his chin and walked inside without a backward glance.

Ah. So that one was literal.

"Carter, Teal'c, you guys want to see the glowy thing, too, don't you?" Jack said, wanting a skeptic or two in there with the Jaffa master.

"Uh...sure?" Carter said unconvincingly, just as Teal'c told him flatly, "I do not."

They exchanged glances, and then Teal'c amended unhappily, "I was mistaken." Looking much more reluctant about the _find-the-path-to-the-light_ deal than Bra'tac was, Teal'c searched the monk with another long stare before following Carter into the room after Bra'tac.

Daniel made to go as well, but the monk held out a hand to stop him before he could enter.

"You must first rid yourself of your burden," the man told him.

With a glance down at the infant in his arms, Daniel took a wary step back. "Uh, that...that's okay."

"You cannot achieve oneness with Desala until your burden has been released."

"No, no," Daniel protested with forced casualness that didn't really cover his nervousness. "He's not a burden at all. I'll just...hold onto him."

"I'm not sure he means a literal burden," Jack told him, and then asked the monk, "Who said we want to achieve oneness with anyone?"

The man didn't answer him, instead continuing to direct this words directly to Daniel. Maybe he could tell Daniel was the one who was interested in this mumbo jumbo. "You hold tightly to this child of flesh and bone."

Jack heard an audible swallow and took a step closer, careful to keep his hands in the open where he could not be mistaken for anything threatening. Not that anything would seem threatening to a guy who apparently had Mother Nature on a leash. "Yes, I do," Daniel said cautiously. "I promised we would make him safe--he is the son of my sister."

"Then why do you bring the child here?"

"To... I don't... To find answers," he said again. "She told us to bring him here and said we could find answers. To seek help in keeping him safe. To talk to you, I suppose. I don't know."

The monk didn't move. "Because the answer is so clear, it takes a longer time to realize it."

Jack imagined he could see smoke coming from Daniel's ears from how furiously the wheels were turning in his head. Finally, he admitted, "I have no idea what you mean. But we need help, so...please. If I cannot enter with my brother, at least let me ask you my questions before you go back inside."

"Is there another reason?"

"N--what? Another reason for what?"

"You bring the boy here to fulfill a promise. Is there another reason?"

Daniel hesitated, then said, "Yes. We need to understand about him and about our enemy."

"You cannot understand until your mind is open," said the monk. "To open your mind is to understand. The path is illuminated. You have but to take the first step.

"I'd like to," Daniel parried swiftly, frustrated, "but you're blocking the way."

The monk's lips curved into a serene smile. Finally, he stepped back, no longer standing in their path. "When your mind and soul are truly at peace, the physical will no longer be an obstacle." He turned and walked into the temple himself, leaving Jack and Daniel alone outside the doors.

"I think that was a 'welcome in,'" Jack said.

"You do?" Daniel asked uncertainly. "I thought that was a 'stay out.'"

Jack shrugged. "I say we go in."

Bra'tac was somehow managing to look dignified even without his shoes or weapon, his cape draped over his arm as he studied the temple's interior. Teal'c was still near the entrance and seemed to have been waiting for them to enter. The walls of the temple were covered with markings of some kind, and the monk stood watching them from the middle of the floor. It was all very Zen. Jack wasn't particularly fond of Zen unless it had to do with fishing.

Carter was pacing nervously and snapped to attention immediately when they stepped inside. "Sir, was something wrong?"

"Nope. Just a little blip," Jack told her.

"Wow," Daniel breathed. His attention consumed by the walls, he ignored the others in the room and gently shifted the baby into one arm, freeing his other hand to dig for his glasses. "This...these walls are literally covered with writing."

"Can you read it?" Carter asked.

"Well, no, but it does bear some slight resemblance to some ideographic writing systems on Earth. In fact..." He turned suddenly, his face alight and animated, in sharp contrast to the composed monk in the center of the room. "Did you write this? Or are the people who wrote it still here? Is that why we're here?"

"Why did you come?" the man asked in place of an answer.

"I already told you why."

"Then why did you ask?"

Daniel's excitement dimmed a little. "But...right. Okay." He looked around, then asked, "Can you read it?"

"Knowledge can be found by all who truly seek it," the monk said.

Jack thought he should be canonized for not throttling the man out of pure frustration.

Turning to them, Daniel said, "I think...this might take a little time."

"We've got time," Carter said, glancing at Jack. "Right, sir?"

"Time," the monk added as he lowered himself to sit on the floor, "is no constraint to one who has achieved oneness with Desala."

"Okay, yeah," Jack said, not in the mood to pursue that line of thought. The biggest possible threat at this point seemed to be right here, from whoever this person was and whoever the glowy Mother was, and since they'd been here for a while without being struck down, being nice to them was probably the safest they'd get on this planet. He stuck his head outside into the dark, almost expecting to see all of their supplies gone and realize this was all a horrible trick of some kind, but everything was just how they'd left it.

"Teal'c and I can keep an eye on our stuff," Carter offered, apparently also thinking the same thing.

"Good idea," Jack said and watched as they stepped outside, both bending immediately to pick up their weapons. He glanced at his watch, resigning himself to what had disconcertingly begun to look like a boring research mission, even as he still felt the adrenaline from their flight and the uneasy feeling of something _off_ about the rest of it.

Daniel didn't even seem to notice their exchange, still studying at the writing as if he could read it if he stared hard enough. "Daniel? Are you forgetting the reason we came here?" Jack gestured toward the Harsesis, who was blinking up at them sleepily after the long day's journey.

"Uh...of course, you're right," Daniel said, looking surprised enough that Jack started to suspect he _had_ forgotten, after all, but there was a note of reluctance in his voice, like he'd remembered but not wanted to remember, just in case he learned something about his baby brother that he didn't want to hear.

"Can you tell us anything about the Harsesis?" Jack asked the monk. "Child of two Goa'uld?"

"That knowledge is here for those who seek it," the monk said, which, to Jack's mind, was probably a _'yes, I can.'_ "Why do you wish to know?"

"Well," he said with a glance toward Bra'tac, "we think he can help our people fight our enemy."

Nodding, the Jaffa master stepped in closer. "The child possesses knowledge that we can use to defeat them."

"If you know this for certain," the monk said, "why do you need to ask?"

"We know that the knowledge exists," Daniel explained, "but we don't know what the knowledge...is. We were told we could find help here, but we don't know very much of anything at all about Shifu, and..." The monk stared at him, emotionless and unperturbed by the uneasiness Daniel was beginning to exude. "He may be in danger from people looking for him, or we may be in danger for harboring him. I...I was hoping you could help us."

"There are many forms of knowledge. He who understands does not need to know."

"Oh, for crying out loud," Jack muttered.

"Jack," Daniel said. Then, to the monk, "Can you teach me?"

"I cannot teach you what you already know."

"How about what I _don't_ know?"

Jack tossed one more wary glance at them, then stepped up beside Bra'tac as the monk gave another non-answer. "Do you have any idea what we're doing?" he asked softly.

For once, he was greeted with a thoughtful pause rather than an insult. "I am uncertain," Bra'tac finally admitted. "But I believe this man--this guardian--to be one who can tell me what I seek."

Lowering his voice, Jack said, "Bra'tac, how much do we really--"

"You do not trust," the monk said now, and when Jack turned, the monk was staring right at him and Bra'tac.

"Sure I do," Jack said warily, because he did, sometimes--just not until he knew the beings he was supposed to be trusting. Or saw, even--he'd take visual confirmation at this point, and the monk was still hiding the glowy thing somewhere. People with something to hide too often ended up being trouble.

As if hearing his thoughts, the monk clarified, "You do not trust the Mother."

Daniel turned to him, too. "She saved our lives, Jack."

"And why did she do that, Daniel?" Jack retorted.

"Jack..."

" _Daniel_!"

The monk's unnervingly calm eyes watched them as they tried to stare down each other down. Jack should have had the advantage there--he was armed with height, experience, and shoes, after all--except that Daniel didn't give a damn about the etiquette of glaring people into submission and glared right back.

Finally, when it was clear the stalemate wasn't about to end, Daniel turned away from him, walked toward the center of the room, and sat down in the circle as well, shifting the baby's weight partly onto his lap. " _I'll_ trust her," he said. "What would she have me do?"

"You need only open your mind," the guardian monk told him.

"Yes," Daniel said. "Okay. But how?"

"The journey is a simple one, but not easy. One man cannot make the journey for another."

"Well, I'm not trying to--" He broke off, staring at the baby, and then at Jack. He cocked his head in thought, glanced again at the monk, then rose to his feet again to approach Jack. The monk didn't stop him or comment. "The guardian probably has a lot of the answers we're looking for," Daniel said quietly.

"Yeah, I got that," Jack answered.

"I need to talk to him, Jack."

Jack didn't move. "You want me to go away." Daniel tilted his head slightly in agreement. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"I will remain, O'Neill," Bra'tac spoke up, striding forward to take a place sitting in the circle. "I, too, wish to know more of this...journey."

"Look--"

_"Sierra Golf one niner, do you read?"_ Jack's radio chirped, making him start and reach for a weapon that wasn't there.

Thirty-minute check-in. Without moving his gaze, Jack reached up to the radio and replied, "I read you, Major. We're okay; give me a minute."

_"Roger, sir."_

"See, you just told Major Ferretti that we're fine," Daniel pointed out, dropping his voice even lower until only Jack could hear. "We need to figure out what this place is, what they can do, what they know...and I'm sure it will go a lot faster if we follow the guardian's lead, and I don't think we'll get anywhere unless we all do as he asks."

"I can do that," Jack countered.

"You wouldn't take off your shoes."

"Oh, for--What's that got to do with anything?"

"That's exactly my point."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your presence is unhelpful," Bra'tac said bluntly, somehow managing to make it seem like he was looking _down_ at Jack, even as he looked up from where he sat on the floor. "You will only prolong our stay. I will remain and ensure that all goes well."

Jack bit back the angry retort. Nothing was guaranteed to go well, but the old Jaffa could be right, because Jack might commit violence against the monk if the guy said one more thing about souls and freeing and enlightenment. With a final nod from Bra'tac, Jack turned back to Daniel. "You don't come out, someone's coming in to check every hour."

"Wait--" He bit his lip, then looked down at Shifu. "Could you watch over him until we're done? In case we're wrong about..." Daniel tilted his head very slightly toward the monk.

"Daniel, if you think there's any possibility--"

"I don't. I really think we can trust him, Jack. I just...don't want to take the chance with my brother. And it might take some time, so..."

Jack glanced at the monk again, unable to shake the twitchy feeling this place gave him. Finally, he sighed and took the sleeping baby from Daniel's arms. "Everything he needs is in your pack?" he asked unhappily. "Got enough food and everything?"

Daniel sighed in relief. "Yes. Thank you, Jack."

"Every hour," he reminded.

Teal'c tilted his head in curiosity when Jack stepped out. "Uh," Carter said, looking at the baby warily. "What's going on, sir?"

"Daniel and Bra'tac are going to play along with the monk person," Jack said, with the uncomfortable feeling that it might not be 'playing along' as much as it was 'being strung along.' He sat down on the steps of the temple, his back against a pillar so that he could see both the courtyard entrance and the temple entrance easily the same time.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, "I do not believe that is wise."

_Neither do I_ , Jack wanted to agree, but only said, "Maybe they'll learn something. Bra'tac won't let something happen to Daniel, and I doubt lightning can get through that ceiling. Carter, hail Ferretti and give him a sit rep. Teal'c, open Daniel's pack and toss me whatever blankets are in there, will you? Looks like we'll be here for a while."

He pretended not to see his team exchanging glances with each other before Carter reached up to her radio. Teal'c raised an eyebrow to him in the dark as he pulled the blanket around the Harsesis, arranging what they had into a makeshift cradle on the steps of the temple. Jack hoped they wouldn't have to stay here any longer than necessary. "Can I tempt you to play babysitter?" he asked the Jaffa in weary joke.

Teal'c eyed the Harsesis. "We will stand guard in shifts," he said. He didn't say what they were guarding and from what. Jack leaned back and didn't ask.

XXXXX

**_13 November 1998; Temple of Kheb; 1900 hrs_ **

Daniel looked away from the wall the temple guardian was showing him and waved a hand at Jack when the familiar head poked into the temple's entrance for another check-in. Jack pointedly looked at his watch, but stepped back out again to join Sam and Teal'c.

"So you weren't the one who built this place," Daniel said, summarizing what the guardian had just read to him from the walls. What he _thought_ the man had said, anyway; it was difficult to tell. "And what you just read to me, that's writing that the original inhabitants left behind?"

"To one who--"

_...has reached enlightenment..._ he thought, trying not to show his impatience with these circular arguments.

"--has reached enlightenment, even the ancient ones have not truly left."

The words struck a cord in him, familiar from people who sought to comfort with such phrases. "Did they die, the ones who were here before?"

"They reached enlightenment."

"Through death?" Daniel glanced up at Bra'tac. The old Jaffa was no longer allowed to proceed with this...whatever it was, because he still carried a _prim'ta_ , and would continue to do so until his death, but he remained in the room, seemingly content to observe quietly. Possibly it was also because Jack might storm in and take up watch otherwise, and then they'd never finish. "You are talking about the ancient Jaffa?"

The guardian shook his head slowly. "The journey is for all."

Not the Jaffa of Bra'tac's legends, then. Bra'tac said that the old Jaffa had found this planet, anyway, not that they had built it. The builders were probably someone even _more_ ancient. Maybe even more Ancient. "So by 'enlightenment'..."

Daniel followed the man's movements as he walked away from the walls and sat back in the center. "Those who achieve oneness with Desala reach enlightenment. You are not ready."

"I _am_ ready," Daniel protested, though he wasn't even sure what he was saying that he was ready for. Maybe it was a test, this journey, and if he made it, he would learn what this place was, and what it had to do with his little brother. He took a seat again facing the guardian. "I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do."

"And so you are not ready. Your mind is not prepared."

"But why not?"

The guardian stared at him for a long moment, and Daniel shifted uncomfortably, feeling as though the man were looking into his mind and sifting through his thoughts. "You hold great hate for one who has spent so little time on this plane."

"No, I don't," he said defensively, even though it was perhaps--slightly--a lie. "Wait, what do you mean, ' _this_ plane?' Is that where everyone else has gone? Another plane?"

The question was ignored. "You hate the Goa'uld."

"I...no, I...well, yes," he admitted. "But the Goa'uld have taken so much. How can I not hate them?"

"Your hate will lead to death."

"As long as it's theirs," he said before he could stop himself, then flushed. Bra'tac raised an eyebrow, but the guardian seemed neither surprised nor perturbed. Daniel felt uncomfortably like the man knew everything there was to know about him already.

"There is an innocence in you," the guardian said abruptly. "But it has been tainted." Daniel suppressed a shiver at the matter-of-fact words. The word was innocuous on its own, but its connotations were ugly.

"Innocence is a luxury for the very young and very inexperienced," he said, "and I'm not a child anymore, that's all." Sha'uri had told Skaara that many times before, but it was usually in reprimand, and usually included ' _very stupid_ ' as another inexcusable excuse for innocence. Daniel decided to leave that part out. "Surely that cannot be..."

"With time, the taint is tempered by wisdom, and it becomes part of the whole," the guardian explained. "But the caterpillar cannot fly immediately simply because it no longer crawls."

It took the hint of a metallic taste in his mouth for Daniel to realize he was biting his tongue to stop himself from snapping something back, because he didn't know what he would say. Maybe that was what the guardian meant, that he had to be sure about whatever it was he had to be to be considered ready, and Daniel was completely unsure about it, so...

Gods. This must be what the Tau'ri phrase 'in over his head' meant.

Also, he didn't know what a caterpillar was. Rather, he suspected it was some kind of animal that he might recognize, but not in this language. He exhaled slowly and decided to try something that would--should--be simple. "Why do you speak in a Tau'ri language?"

"Why do you?" the guardian asked instead of answering.

"Because I work with the Tau'ri."

"With whom am I working now?"

"I'm not Tau'ri."

"Nor is anyone in this temple, yet you continue to use their words."

And Daniel was back to biting his tongue.

"What I meant," Daniel said as patiently as he could, "was to ask why you do not speak your own language. What _is_ your own language?" Maybe if he knew that, he could have an idea of what race or species had populated this planet, as well as what they had done here.

"Words are not important if the meaning is clear," the guardian said.

"Well, what about when the meaning is _not_ clear?" he couldn't help saying. Bra'tac made a little _harrumph_ of amusement. It might have disguised Daniel's sigh of exasperation if the guardian had not been staring so unblinkingly at him. _Focus. Stop whining._

Jack had no patience for arguments that had some meaning beneath the words that could be alternately obscured and illuminated through clever tricks of semantics. Usually, that was something Daniel enjoyed, verbal sparring that served no purpose but to sharpen wits and tongue, but he found himself now feeling lost, as if that hidden meaning were buried so far beneath the words that it was completely out of his reach.

"I don't even know what we're talking about anymore," he admitted.

The guardian didn't answer.

He glanced toward the entrance, as if he could see Shifu though the walls, then tried again, "Do you know anything about the Harsesis child? What it means for my little brother to be...well, what he is? Do you know what it is that he knows?"

"The burden he carries is too heavy for him."

There was a brief taste of triumph to have received some sort of answer at last, but then fear spiked fast through him when he processed what the answer was. "Too heavy?" he repeated, thinking of what secrets must be filling the baby's head and remembering what had happened--what had _almost_ happened--when Jack had known too much against his will. "What does that mean? It will destroy his mind?"

"The mind is strong. The danger is to the spirit."

"Then you think it--whatever it is, whatever knowledge he holds--will break his spirit."

Daniel couldn't help a note of defiance from entering his voice at the thought. Sharemes Shifu--Light and Son of Sha'uri--was an Abydon. It would take more than the machinations of the Goa'uld to break his spirit, Harsesis child or not.

"A reed may bend to the wind and never break," the guardian said, "but, once bent, it is no longer the same."

There was a saying like that on Abydos, about the stiff trees that fell because they would not bend to the wind, while the thin reeds bowed to the force of nature and survived the onslaught intact. The moral of _this_ saying, however, seemed quite different. Carefully, Daniel tried, "The spirit bends but doesn't break. That's a good thing, yes?"

The guardian's expression remained impassive. "Once bent, the reed is scarred forever and can be bent again and again."

Right. Sure.

But whatever the metaphor, the guardian's words meant danger to Shifu, and that part Daniel could understand perfectly. "There must be some way to save him."

"The only way to win is to deny it battle."

Daniel looked back at Bra'tac, who returned his gaze with eyes narrowed in thought. To deny a battle, Teal'c would say, was to surrender. Even without Jaffa teachings, even without being a Guardsman or a Tau'ri warrior, giving up without trying went against everything Daniel was, too. "I don't understand. How can you win if you refuse to fight?"

"How can you win when to fight is to lose?" the guardian riposted swiftly.

"How do you know that you'll lose if you don't try?"

"This is a fight that no man or child can win."

"And I'm just supposed to accept that because you say it?"

"Why do you seek the counsel of the Mother if you do not believe her words?"

Daniel started to reply that it wasn't like that, then realized for the first time what that implied. "The counsel of the Mother? Not of...you?"

The guardian remained unmoving. "Through her teachings, we may reach enlightenment."

So it was the Mother's help they sought, not this guardian's. He had assumed that the being of light they had seen was someone or something who served this man, or even an advanced technological construct, but perhaps he had been wrong; perhaps it was this man who served _her_.

"May I ask you about her?" When the guardian didn't tell him 'no,' he continued, guessing, "When you mentioned...uh, _Desala_ , you meant the Mother. So, she is the warrior who defends this world. That's why the Goa'uld have feared this place for so long? She...kills evil beings who come here?"

"Oma Desala is the Mother," was all the guardian would say. Daniel wasn't sure whether it was confirmation of the first part of his question or a denial of the latter.

"But," Daniel countered, "a mother can be a warrior, too, yes? In order to protect her charge, she must sometimes fight those who would do harm."

"How can one judge the intentions of another?"

"She judged us before. She attacked those who had weapons."

"No," Bra'tac spoke up. "It was not our weapons that mattered."

The guardian's lips curved into a smile, but he didn't explain what that meant.

Daniel pondered that for a minute, since no one seemed to be about to explain it to him, then said finally, with the thrill of understanding, "It was our willingness to put ourselves in Oma Desala's hands and know that she would not harm us. Of course--it has to do with trust. I should have realized that before."

"If you immediately know the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago," the guardian told him.

"Okay," Daniel said slowly, trying to work through that, then admitted, "I don't know what that means. I don't understand any of...I don't know what 'Oma Desala' means, either. I've been trying to figure that out, but I don't recognize the words."

"Words cannot express things. Speech cannot convey the spirit; swayed by words, one is lost."

"Words _do_ mean things," he said, not really trying to argue, but trying to understand. "So do names, yes?"

"The house is named for its purpose, but its purpose can be discovered by walking in the door."

_I already walked in the door, but I still don't know very much of anything_ , he thought. "So...you're saying that Oma Desala's name tells who she is, but it's not the only way to discover that. I don't know what her name means, but it doesn't matter as long as I know _what_ she is."

"To know a person's spirit is to know the person. I sense within you the capacity to trust in the Mother," the guardian said. "Yet you do not, though you have seen the quality of her spirit."

"I do," Daniel protested. "I _did_. I trusted her enough to ask my friends to lay themselves at her mercy."

"But not the boy."

"I lowered my weapon to stop defending him and myself. I did leave Shifu at her mercy, as much as the rest of us."

The guardian shook his head. "You do not understand what he requires."

"No, I _don't_ ," Daniel agreed, frustrated and desperate and pleading. "That's why we came."

"You do not trust Oma Desala."

They were going in circles, and Daniel knew he was missing something important here, but it didn't make any sense, and the guardian refused to speak in simple language. "What more should I do to show that I trust her? Whatever it is, really, I'm ready for it. I would do anything, if my brother will--"

"The sapling must become a tree before it can reach the heavens."

"It would have to be a very tall tree," Daniel retorted before he could stop himself.

For the first time, the guardian gave a smile with a hint of true amusement and spoke frankly. "You are very young, yet. I can show you the path, but only when your mind is prepared can you begin the journey."

A flicker of movement caught Daniel's eye. He looked down to see a candle on the floor between them where none had been before and wondered whether it had appeared there by some magic or whether the guardian had simply moved one so quickly that he hadn't noticed it.

"Light the candle," the guardian instructed.

Daniel reached into his vest pocket for the standard lighter. It wasn't there, of course, because his vest was outside with the rest of his equipment. "There are other candles here," he said, gesturing to one that was lit already. "Why don't you just use one of them to--"

The candle lit.

Daniel froze. Bra'tac straightened from where he was still watching.

"Oh," Daniel said.

The guardian closed his eyes, and the candle winked out. "Light the candle," he repeated.

"What, you mean..." Daniel waved a hand toward the innocuous stick of wax. "Just..." He laughed weakly at the absurdity. "How?"

"You must believe."

"Well, I don't think I believe that I can light a candle with my mind."

"Then do not," the guardian said. "Show to Oma Desala your trust in her. Believe that _she_ can light the candle."

"Is that what's been going on this whole time?" Daniel asked, intrigued. "Everything you seem to know about us, and the things you're doing...it's actually Oma Desala?" He hesitated, then asked, "Is Oma Desala...a god?"

"One person cannot act for another," the guardian said. "Oma Desala is the Mother."

Well, that was something. Because if the Mother were evil, or an oppressive god, surely she would force actions upon them, rather than allowing them to choose their own path. Surely.

"Believe," the guardian repeated patiently. "Light the candle."

"I don't know," Daniel stalled, still eyeing the candle warily, wondering if it might be some kind of trick and worrying that he wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't. "Actually, the thing is--I'm just...my brother. Look, I'm here for him. What did you mean when you said to deny battle? What battle? How..." The guardian's gaze pierced into him. "I mean...uh...I'm just trying to find a way to help him, not learn to...to light candles."

"The wind whistles through the branches," the guardian told him, "but the trees do not hear."

"Okay, I'm a tree now, aren't I?" Daniel said. "What is the wind saying?"

"What do you wish most for the Harsesis child?"

"For him to be safe," he answered without hesitation. "To know he will be...protected. Oh." As he watched, the guardian blinked once and lit the candle again. This time, the flame flared high, tantalizingly beautiful even as Daniel felt the heat that warned of its power. " _Oh_. You're teaching me how to protect Shifu."

"Blow it out," the guardian said. "Trust. Believe."

For the first time since coming to this place, everything seemed clear. The candle flame stilled and held steady, as calm as his mind, as calm as the candles in Teal'c's room, and even calmer for the pure tranquility of everything around them.

This was how Shifu would be protected, and it meant Daniel would have to stay with his baby brother. If he was able to protect the Harsesis and whatever Goa'uld secrets he was supposed to hold, no one, not Apophis or Heru-ur or the Pentagon or even Kasuf, could take him away, and if it was a selfish thought, well, it would protect Shifu, too, and who knew what role the baby might play in the war? So it _was_ for the greater good.

And Shifu would be safe. Sha'uri would approve.

Daniel closed his eyes and made himself stop thinking for the first time since arriving here. In his mind's eye, he thought he could see a shimmering form bending down to blow the flame out...

His eyes snapped open. There was no one standing by the candle, but the flame flickered once, then disappeared.

Bra'tac uttered something that Daniel thought must be either a curse or a prayer.

"You have seen the path," the guardian said. "Now you must learn to walk it."

XXXXX

**_13 November 1998; Temple of Kheb; 2200 hrs_ **

"I've been thinking," Carter said.

"Shocking," Jack said sourly. She ignored him.

"We've been here for a few hours, sir, and clearly Daniel's been able to...uh...establish some kind of rapport with the...the man in there with him. But we still have no idea what we're doing here, or how an army of Jaffa was killed, or by whom."

"By the Desala-whatsit, Carter; weren't you listening?"

"That's not exactly informative, sir."

"And it's not getting any more informative while we're sitting out here on our behinds, waiting for Daniel and Bra'tac to 'find the light,'" he retorted.

"Why did we even bring him?" she asked.

"It was Daniel Jackson's right," Teal'c answered swiftly. "Matters concerning the Harsesis child concern him also."

But Carter shook her head. "I'm not talking about Daniel; I'm talking about the baby." Teal'c blinked, then lifted his head thoughtfully. She glanced toward the infant sleeping in a cradle of their packs and spare blankets padding the ground, then clarified, "If there were some technology that the baby needed to interface with directly, I would understand, but I couldn't see anything in the temple, and my instruments are picking up literally nothing above an expected baseline."

"You're saying that all we can get out of this is a little information," Jack said slowly, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, yes, sir, it's looking that way. But why would Daniel's sister have insisted that the baby had to be _brought_ to Kheb, if that's the case?"

Crap. "You think Amaunet tricked us."

"Not necessarily, sir," she said. "It would've been a risky trick, costly for any Goa'uld who came here. But it's very possible that Sha'uri had something different in mind from what we've been expecting out of this trip."

"Either way, something's wrong with this," Jack said, suppressing a flash of fear that he might have misjudged the harmlessness of this place, after all. "Wait here and keep an eye on the kid; I'll be right back." He stepped into the temple again...

...and was greeted by a spurt of fire.

"Whoa!" He ducked away and raised his weapon in preparation to respond, but it wasn't necessary; the fiery column dissipated immediately to reveal Daniel standing in the center of the room in his socked feet, their tour guide still sitting and meditating. The only flame that remained was burning innocently on a candle. "What was that?" he demanded of the monk.

"He didn't do that," Daniel told him calmly.

"Oh, sure; _you_ did."

"Yes. He's been teaching me how."

Jack stopped and looked at him carefully, but all he could see in the expression was confidence overlaid by a flush of excitement. Pupils normal. No injuries. Bra'tac still unperturbed. He glanced quickly into a corner where he almost expected some screwy flame spurting device to have appeared, only to see the same nothing that had been there before. "You're...joking, right?"

"I have witnessed it, O'Neill," Bra'tac spoke up from the other side of the room.

"You have 'witnessed it?'" Jack repeated incredulously. "Daniel, you're"--what exactly was this thing, anyway?--"making things light on fire with your mind?"

Daniel shrugged. "I know. I know what you're..."

"Daniel, Bra'tac," Jack said, falsely light in a tone that Daniel would recognize for _get the hell over here right now_. "A word."

When all three of them were in a corner where they could talk quietly without the monk hearing, unless he had freaky bat-like ears--which, at this point, Jack was not ruling out--Daniel started again quietly, "I know this sounds and looks a little...well..."

"Nuts?" Jack filled in.

"Yes, I know, but try to keep an open mind..."

"An open _mind_?" he hissed.

"After everything you've seen off-world, is this so unbelievable?"

"There's a difference between seeing aliens and alien technology do things we can't and seeing _you_ do it."

Daniel only smiled happily. "But that's just it, Jack. It's not just me; you could do it, too. The guardian has been teaching me how." His expression was absolutely earnest, like he somehow actually believed this wasn't completely insane.

"And has he been teaching Bra'tac, too?" Jack asked pointedly, noticing that the Jaffa master hadn't been a part of the pyro party.

"My _prim'ta_ prevents me from beginning this journey," Bra'tac said, as if that explained everything. "But I take solace in the fact that it is ahead of me."

Jack could almost understand that Daniel had been taken in by whatever trick this was--whatever crap Daniel had seen so far in his life, he was still inexperienced and maybe too ready to trust--but Bra'tac was a seasoned, canny warrior; he was another story. Or was it like what Daniel had said earlier--was Bra'tac so desperately looking for something to believe in that he could be so easily swayed? Or was Daniel?

And then something invisible started to tug at his MP-5.

Holy crap.

Instinctively, Jack tightened his grip and tried to turn the gun toward the one target who wasn't a friend and instead found it unclipping itself from his vest, sliding inexplicably through his grasping fingers and floating before him in the air. The muzzle pointed down toward the ground, not that that made him feel much better about having his gun _floating_ in the _air_.

Jack reached toward his sidearm. "Daniel..."

"It's okay."

"Like hell it i--!"

"No," Daniel interrupted calmly. "Look."

As Jack pulled out his pistol, the submachine gun was slowly unloaded and dismantled, exactly the way he had taught Daniel about guns on base, except the part where it was done _without hands_. Each piece sank slowly from the air and landed gently on the floor.

Daniel looked up at him like he expected a pat on the back and a _'good job_ , _'_ exhilaration plain in his expression. "Really--it's okay. You can put that down."

Cautiously, Jack lowered his sidearm but said, "You've gotta be kidding me. You're telling me you did that."

"Why not?" Daniel asked.

"This has to be some kind of trick."

" _Why_ , Jack?"

"Because, Daniel, I don't have to be Carter to know this isn't physically possible. Do I have to call her in here before you wake up?"

The calm exterior cracked a little to allow some frustration to leak out. "Wake up to what? How else do you explain it? Maybe you just have to be willing to...to learn and believe."

Hah. Not likely. "Believe in _what_?" Jack said.

"In...the... See, the words on the walls--they're not just random writing," Daniel said, waving his hands at the walls. "I think they're instructions, about how to reach some...something...I don't know. _Higher_. The people who built this place supposedly left this plane of life and have moved on."

"Yeah," Jack said, "to alien heaven."

Daniel shook his head. "It's not just a question of life and death. I think there's just some higher level of existence. Jack, come on. You've seen worse things than most people can imagine, but there must be something...everything can't be just..." He exhaled, sharp and angry despite his sincere words. "Haven't you ever wanted to believe that people can reach something...else? Something greater than all this?"

The monk wasn't making a move to stop their argument or listen in. Jack stepped back to include Bra'tac in his gaze as he said, "Just 'cause you want to believe it doesn't make it true. Of all people, I shouldn't have to remind you two that we've seen blind faith get twisted and used to someone else's advantage."

Jack hated himself a little for the wounded look that flickered across Daniel's face at that, but then Daniel straightened, irritation quickly replacing the hurt. "Blind-- This isn't blind faith, Jack; you saw it yourself. I call that proof, not _blind faith_."

"Bra'tac," Jack said instead of answering directly, "when you were First Prime of Apophis, how many times did you see 'proof' that the Goa'uld were gods, hm?" Bra'tac tilted his head in thought, uncertainty flitting across his face, but Daniel remained stubbornly adamant.

"She's not a Goa'uld, Jack--she saved our _lives_ from the Jaffa out there, and she's not claiming to be a god or--"

"Oh, 'she?'" Jack repeated.

"Oma Desala," Daniel said. "The Mother. We need her help."

_Here we go again._

"That glowy thing we saw? No, that wasn't a Goa'uld. That was just someone willing and able to kill who knows how many Jaffa like _that_." He snapped his fingers. "How many times do I have to remind you that the Goa'uld aren't the only things out there we want to avoid?"

"If she wanted to kill us," Daniel countered tightly, "do you really think insulting her in her temple is the smartest thing to do? She could have killed us all countless times already, and she hasn't. Doesn't that tell you something?"

"Yeah. It tells me she's got some motive we don't know about."

"Do you always have to assume the worst?" Daniel asked.

Already on edge and aggravated by arguing with Daniel, Jack snapped back, "I find it good practice for real life. How do _you_ explain all this...psychic business, then, huh?"

Daniel lifted his chin. "They have been teaching me how to protect Shifu. That's what we can learn here."

"Parlor tricks?"

"It's more than just tricks. You saw what Oma Desala did to Heru-ur's army. If we could do things like that--well, just think about it, Jack! Think of what that could do for our side."

Jack adjusted his hat to give his hands something to do besides itching to shake Daniel. "And why did your sister tell us to bring the Harsesis here?"

"With the guidance of Oma Desala, I will be able to keep my brother safe, the way we couldn't..." He stopped, crossing his arms defiantly. "I will be able to keep him safe."

_The way we couldn't keep Sha'uri safe_ , Jack heard. "So why does the _baby_ have to be here?"

Daniel frowned and opened his mouth, then closed it. Still, he was on a roll, and no one stopped Daniel Jackson when he was on a roll, so he said, "Maybe Oma Desala needed to see him to know what we need to learn."

Every instinct Jack had said this was wrong, and he'd learned not to ignore those instincts. He still hated himself a little more for having to be the one to drive the point in, parroting back, "You remember what happened to the Jaffa? _Who_ did that?"

Daniel either didn't get what Jack was trying to say or refused to hear it. "Oma Desala. You just said--"

"And how are you"--he eyed his submachine gun--"moving things without touching them?"

There was a hesitation, then, and it was Bra'tac who said, "Ah," his voice tinged with some disappointment.

Suddenly, Jack understood why they'd brought the baby.

He saw the moment that Daniel realized what Bra'tac already had. Daniel's entire bearing drooped, just a fraction, but he pressed on regardless. "It...well...perhaps it is through our trust in Oma Desala that she does these things, but...okay. Maybe it's not me, and she's doing it, but if she's willing to use her powers to protect Shifu, then maybe--"

"And what happens when we go back to Earth?" Jack asked. "If _she's_ protecting Shifu, what happens when _he leaves_ with us? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like we've got a problem there."

This time, Daniel shut up and couldn't seem to come up with any more rationalization.

His eyes slid from Jack to the silent monk and finally to the entrance, where his gaze stayed for several long seconds.

"Shifu will be in danger as long as he is on Earth," Daniel said, his voice suddenly quiet. "And Earth will be in danger as long as he is there. Sha'uri said her son could...could be helped on Kheb."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck, feeling more tired than half a day's march and waiting could account for. "Daniel," he said, but there really wasn't anything he could say to that.

"She meant he could be helped by Oma Desala, not by me or anyone else. She meant to bring Shifu to this place so he would be kept safe. He... _can't_ leave with us."

Jack drew in a breath. "You're...sure about this Oma Desala. You're sure she wants to help, even though she"--he glanced at the meditating monk and lowered his voice--"and this guy have been leading you around by the nose?"

Daniel didn't meet Jack's gaze. "I'm sure. They tried to tell me. All of this--they were trying to make me understand. I just didn't want to listen. The wind whistles through the branches, but the trees do not hear."

Jack stared at him, then looked to Bra'tac. There was no explanation there, either, but the old Jaffa nodded and apparently understood, which was going to have to be good enough for Jack, because this was starting to creep him right the hell out, and they needed to finish up _right now_ and get home.

"I need you to think very hard about this," he said, careful, but steady, in the tone that made Daniel listen and obey as much as any tone ever did. "Objectively, now, Mr. Jackson. How do you know what Oma Desala intends to do? We can't rely just on intuition now."

"She could have taken Shifu anytime she wanted," Daniel said woodenly. "But it had to be willing. That's what makes her--or them, whoever she is--different from the Goa'uld. She wanted me to understand so I would..." He took a deep breath. "I have to give up Shifu willingly, knowing exactly what it means."

A sense of something _different_ made Jack whip his head around to where the monk was sitting.

Or, rather, where he _had_ been sitting, because the man was gone.

Carter yelled from outside.

Jack looked around the temple once more, then ran back outside, Bra'tac behind him. "Carter, what--holy...!"

A white light had appeared over the Harsesis. Carter had her gun in her hands, but she was lowering it even as they came out. Teal'c was holding his staff weapon, but down, pointing toward the ground. "Sir," she said, "it just...appeared."

"Just put it down, Carter," he said. "Ah, you might want to..." He gestured with at her with his head until she and Teal'c backed off several paces.

"She won't hurt you," Daniel said from the temple entrance, then took a step toward it. Her. The glowy. Jack reached out automatically to stop him, but Bra'tac's soft but firm, "O'Neill," made him abort the movement.

By then Daniel was already before the light, which was slowly taking shape until Jack could see the outline of the woman-like face that must be Oma Desala. She ignored the others standing around the temple and looked only at Daniel, not making a move toward the baby even now.

"Oma," Daniel breathed. "I know what it means, now. It means 'Mother.'" He reached out toward the light, but his fingers ran through it without resistance. Oma Desala turned her gaze down onto the Harsesis, then looked back at Daniel, a brilliant tendril of light snaking out to caress Daniel's upturned face. He drew in a sharp breath when the light withdrew, and then she drifted away into the temple and faded from sight.

Jack found himself reluctant to break the silence, but he had to do something while Daniel stood frozen over the Harsesis, staring in the wake of the shimmering form.

Before Jack could speak, Daniel tightened his jaw, bent down over the cradle of blankets, and lifted his baby brother into his arms. He turned toward the temple.

"Daniel?"

"Trust me, Jack," Daniel said, sounding congested, his face pressed against the side of the baby's head, even as an infant hand curled around his shirt. "Please. Just...trust me."

He walked in.

Jack turned for just long enough to tell the rest to stay outside, but when he stepped into the temple, Daniel was gone. He pushed down the instinctive spike of panic, hurrying toward the walls instead to make sure he hadn't missed any passageway.

Moments later, Daniel walked out of a wall, and he was alone.

"What happened?" Jack said.

"Shifu is safe," Daniel told him, which answered none of Jack's questions. "He's safe now, Jack."

He stood where he was, perfectly still, as if uncertain where to go from there. And since Shifu had more than one mother trying to protect him now while Daniel had none, Jack stopped questioning, drew him out of the temple of Kheb, and led him toward home.

XXXXX

**_14 November 1998; Kheb; 0000 hrs_ **

Jack was watching. Even though he and Sam walked a few steps behind, Daniel could feel the sharp gaze on the back of his neck. Sam was probably watching, too, and wondering. Daniel knew she was curious, could almost feel the questions pouring off her in the wake of the brief, inadequate explanation Jack had given her before they started for the Stargate, but he couldn't bring himself to turn around and tell her. He still wasn't sure he understood it himself.

Hints of dawn were stealing over them by the time they stopped to rest.

Daniel muffled a sneeze as he dropped to the ground and reached around for his pack. He wondered at how much lighter everything seemed before realizing it was only because Shifu wasn't in his arms.

Someone took the pack from him before he could open it, and he looked up to see Jack wordlessly holding out an MRE and a dose of antihistamines. Daniel accepted them, and he had already begun eating mechanically before he turned by chance and froze when he saw Jack slipping one of Shifu's blankets out of Daniel's pack and into his own.

Sam cleared her throat. Jack paused, then methodically finished his task before turning around. Daniel couldn't read his expression, but he followed when the older man rose to his feet and gestured him away from the others.

Somehow, Daniel had expected that everything would look duller now, uglier. His stomach turned every time Bra'tac and Teal'c's sharp skills led them to skirt around something that he suspected must be the charred remains of a Horus Guard. But, looking up, his breath caught in helpless awe as he saw the gentle fire of the still-hidden sun spreading over the horizon, and he wished with an aching intensity that he could stand here and bathe in the light of Mother Nature forever.

"Don't stare right into the sun," Jack said. "You'll ruin your eyes."

The sun hadn't even begun to rise yet. Jack wasn't really trying to talk about the sun.

It took a few seconds before Daniel lowered his gaze. Not in obedience, because this wasn't Colonel O'Neill now, but in agreement, because this was Jack. "It's beautiful," he managed past the wonder--and maybe something else--obstructing his throat.

"Yeah," Jack said but didn't say anything more.

Unsure if Jack was waiting for him to say something or searching for his own words, Daniel was content to listen to the first birds of morning and the last insects of night, unusually aware of every breeze that tickled his face and every drop of dew dangling from the leaves. He almost wished--not almost, he _wished_ \--Jack would tap him on the shoulder and say, ' _Good, it's over, you did the right thing, your sister's son is safe_ ,' but maybe that was only wishful thinking, because even if it had been true ( _was it true?_ ), Jack wouldn't say it, not if he didn't really believe it.

Jack shifted awkwardly and took a breath, as if to speak, and then stopped and didn't say it.

"Shifu will be protected," Daniel heard himself say. "And I can go to Abydos again and tell Kasuf that."

"We'll probably take a trip to Abydos tomorrow," Jack agreed. "Always a silver lining."

A silver lining on every cloud. A good to every bad. Daniel wanted to yell that, didn't Jack remember, they'd been saved thanks to storm clouds several hours ago, and why did he have to assume clouds were bad just because they were clouds--couldn't he just trust, for once, that maybe it wasn't like that?

But Daniel had been the one wrong this time, arrogant enough to think that he knew what was happening, that he had some kind of power, some ability to protect anyone from anything. They'd both been wrong--Jack about what Oma Desala was and Daniel about what she had been trying to say--but it wasn't Jack who had fooled himself into believing that he could save Shifu, when taking his brother from this place would only have put him and maybe all of them in danger.

"I don't know if..." Daniel started, staring at his feet.

"If what?"

_If I did the right thing._ "Never mind," he said.

"Daniel, listen..." Jack started, softly, but Daniel didn't want to listen this time.

"What?" he interrupted.

"Just. It's just. What were you going to say? 'You don't know if...?'"

"Nothing," Daniel lied.

Nothing. Just his brother.

For a second, he couldn't breathe. He opened his mouth and made himself take a breath, and his lungs worked, but it felt like there was nothing in his chest but a hole that he could sink into if he didn't hold himself away from it.

What if they never saw Shifu again?

He pulled off his glasses and blinked hard at the sun, wishing the antihistamines would work faster and knowing it had nothing to do with pollen.

Jack watched him but didn't say anything. Daniel wished he'd say something, _please say something_ , and hoped he didn't, because there'd be nothing to say in return.

Daniel turned back to where the other three were resting or eating in silence, Bra'tac deep in _kelno'reem_ some distance away, Sam flicking uncertain glances between her companions, and Teal'c looking unsure of what his former teacher was thinking and as if he were considering attempting to reach _kelno'reem_ as well.

"Want to get back to the others?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir," Daniel muttered, surprised at the resentment in his own tone.

Startled as well, Jack turned. "Daniel?"

Jack hadn't trusted him--had made him see that he'd needed to give up his brother--but Daniel had been wrong. It had been necessary. Why was he so miserably annoyed at _Jack_? "What?" he said, and it didn't sound any happier.

Jack sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and pursing his lips at the ground like he was trying to think of what to do. Daniel wasn't stupid, knew he wasn't making it easy, but part of him didn't want to make it easy, because Jack always knew what to do, didn't he, knew when to aim his weapon and shoot just because _unknown_ meant _unfriendly_ , so maybe he could figure this one out, too, because...because Daniel didn't have a clue for himself.

And he'd done it, shown that he could put his personal feelings aside for Shifu to be safe. It was what they'd thought he couldn't do, and now he had. He'd passed the test that Jack never really trusted he would, and now Daniel might never ( _would probably never_ ) hold his baby brother again, all to make sure the Goa'uld would never have access to their genetically engineered weapon and to make sure the Tau'ri could never abuse him as their own genetically engineered weapon... But if it had been the right choice, why did it feel so--

With another frustrated sigh, Jack said, "Look, Daniel..."

"We should probably get back," Daniel said, marveling at how much he wanted Jack to talk to him and how much he wanted to avoid it at the same time. "Teal'c is watching us."

Jack stared at him. He was only a hand's width taller now, but he looked much bigger than that for how small Daniel felt. He nodded and led the way back to their friends.

Before anyone could speak, though, a familiar, blinding light appeared from behind them, over the temple where they had been before. Bra'tac awoke from his trance but only opened his eyes, standing and holding his ground. The others tensed minutely, but Jack held up a cautionary hand, and their hands stayed well away from their weapons this time.

"The Mother," Daniel said unnecessarily, his chest aching as the bright form streaked gracefully toward them.

"Where's she going?" Sam wondered aloud.

As Oma Desala neared, Daniel could see the figure of the woman clearer than ever, and this time, she was holding--

" _Sinu'ket_ ," he whispered, wondering if it was the last time he would say it. He stepped forward to meet her, away from his friends, and she slowed as she approached, her ethereal arms cradling Shifu close against her luminous form. She lowered her arms very slightly, not enough for him to touch ( _give him back, where are you going?_ ) but just enough to see his baby brother's face one more time. Shifu yawned sleepily, burrowing deep into the pure light holding him aloft. "Will I see you again?" Daniel asked Oma Desala. "Either of you?"

The Mother tilted her head, then turned to one side. Daniel followed her gaze to what looked like a tangle of vines and bushes. Suddenly, a bird flew out, cawing raucously. Recalling Skaara's counsel about hunting, Daniel peered more closely at the brush, knowing what must be there. The vultures of Abydos were colored differently, but he didn't need to look beyond the blackened lump barely peeking out in sight to understand what lay under the leaves.

"This planet isn't safe anymore," Daniel realized, with a pang, not only because of what it meant for them, but also because it wasn't _fair_ to have a place so pure, so breathtaking as Kheb turned into just another world ruined by the Goa'uld. "The Goa'uld will look for him here. You're taking him away so others won't find him when they realize where we brought him."

She made a tiny motion, like a nod, but stiff, odd, not quite right, as if she were imitating the gesture only to facilitate communication. Alien indeed, and still better suited to protect his brother than he was.

The vulture screamed again and lit on another distant lump. This time, Daniel could see only death and decay in the bird, not the protective wings of Nekhbet the Mother, now that Oma Desala the Mother was leaving.

"Hey...uh...?" Jack's quiet voice came from behind.

A sudden anger boiled in Daniel's stomach, burning with resentment and unhappiness, and he forced it down to say, "Jack, please. _Trust_ me. Just this once."

Oma Desala smiled gently, rose overhead _(a higher plane_ , he realized. _That's what the guardian meant; she's on a higher plane)_ and drifted away yet again. She disappeared into a formless web of light, and Daniel watched her take his brother away until the shimmering form was lost against the light of the sun.

"We should return to the _chaapa'ai_ ," Bra'tac said after a pause. Without another word, they picked up their belongings and set off.

Later, Jack put a tentative hand on his shoulder. "Not an easy thing to do. Proud of you," he said, but his tone made it a question, like he was trying to see whether it was the right thing to say.

Daniel clenched his jaw, turning to hide from the glare of the rising sun and glaring at the ground to avoid the searching gaze of his friend. Proud of him for being objective enough to see Shifu for what he was--a bargaining chip in the war, not a boy free to have his own life. Was that what he'd meant?

"Yeah," he said, then pulled quickly away from Jack's hand to walk with Teal'c and Bra'tac again. Neither Jaffa spoke, and Daniel was grateful for the silence.


	15. Consequences, Part I

**_10 December 1998; SGC, Earth; 0900 hrs_ **

"Eleven letters for a physicist with a paradoxical cat," Jack said. "Starts with _S_."

"Schrödinger," Carter said immediately, and then, "They did _not_ write that as the clue."

"Yes, they did," Jack told her.

"It's not particularly accurate."

"There's not much space provided," he said, giving her his best exasperated look. "And didn't I say you were disqualified from answering?" It didn't stop him from starting to write in her answer, though. Doing these puzzles with a genius sucked most of the fun out of it, but it didn't mean she wasn't good for answering the things he would never have figured out, anyway.

"Sorry, sir," she lied.

He focused intently on his crossword, then said, "So I hear SG-9 got back while I wasn't looking."

There was a pause, and then Teal'c said, "Daniel Jackson did indeed return with them last night, O'Neill."

"Ah," he said, with the ridiculous feeling that they'd timed it purposely so that he'd be away when they got back.

"It was pretty late, sir; you'd gone home already. Have you...talked to him recently?" Carter asked hesitantly. "He's been a little..."

Daniel hurried into the briefing room, and she stopped before she could finish the sentence.

"Good morning, everyone," he greeted as he took his seat. "Am I late?"

"You are not," Teal'c assured him.

"How do you spell _Schrödinger_?" Jack said, looking him over surreptitiously.

Hammond had lifted that restriction on Daniel's going off-world--Jack himself had argued privately to him that not a lot of judgment calls were going to be harder than handing a baby brother to someone else who, admittedly, seemed a lot better suited than any of them for protection--and Daniel had jumped on it right away.

Jack didn't know how to say that he didn't think handing over a baby brother could possibly be good for a person's state of mind.

The research and diplomatic teams were getting more used to having a civilian along, and more of them were putting in requests for people to help with translation or data collection. Daniel was always willing to go, and Rothman was always happy to let him, as long as he wasn't falling behind in some history book he was supposed to be reading at the time. He'd been on two longer missions so far and few more short there-and-back trips, just in the last three weeks since Kheb.

_Restless_ , Captain Griff had said, chuckling.

_The kid's been underground for two, three months,_ Ferretti had agreed, quietly, out of earshot of the rest of his team when Jack had asked (less subtly than he'd intended), _and just after he got off-world approval, too. He seems okay to me, Jack. We're looking out for him, too. You're just jealous SG-1's only had two missions in the time he's gone on five._

Now Daniel cocked his head, not really meeting Jack's eyes, and asked, "Isn't that Sam's cat?"

Jack took a second to remember what he was doing and turned to Carter. "You have a paradoxical cat?"

"He was named after Schrödinger, sir," she explained, "who had a theory that's often presented as involving a cat that's both alive and dead at the same moment. Paradox."

"And he's staying with Narim of the Tollan now, anyway," Daniel added, deadpan. "Since last year, when you rescued them and sent them to the Nox homeworld. Right, Sam?"

Carter blushed a little. "Yes, Daniel, that's right. You wouldn't happen to know what we're doing here today, would you?"

"Nice topic change," Jack told her. "Very smooth."

Daniel shook his head. "No idea. I just found out a minute ago that I was even supposed to be at this meeting. Sorry I missed you yesterday," he added innocently to Jack. "You said there was something you wanted to talk to me about?"

Yeah, right, like he was going to talk about Kheb or Shifu or anything right here in the briefing room when General Hammond was about to walk in any second. "Nothing important," Jack lied. "I'll ask you later." Good thing, too, since he didn't really know what he was going to say.

That was another thing--Daniel been...not avoiding Jack, exactly, but he was _never_ alone anywhere anymore. There were suddenly more reasons to stay on base so he could work on a translation with Captain Young's help, or there was that abandoned planet SG-8 was on, and they needed someone to translate the instructions that went along with some device so they could figure out how to turn it on. The only time Jack had seen him for more than an hour at a time was last week, when they'd been doing target practice with zats and handguns at the range. It had been a disturbingly quiet training session, other than the sound of bullets. Daniel had pointed out that they wore ear protectors that made it hard to hear conversations, said thanks for the practice time and that he was getting more shots on the target now, and skipped off to the base library.

He seemed okay most of the time, and Jack still wasn't sure whether to leave it alone. He was churning out impressive volumes of quality work, these days, but then, he'd always been like that, hadn't he? It was only looking after Shifu that had temporarily slowed him down...but of course he'd be sad or quiet or...something. It was normal. Nothing to worry about. Jack hoped.

"Do you know why the general called this meeting, sir?" Carter asked him.

"I've got nothing," Jack said, folding his finished puzzle and putting it away. "But I'm gonna go with...friendly aliens with invisible arms. Any takers?"

"What?" Daniel said, confused. "Take what?"

Teal'c understood, though, and answered, "I have rarely encountered beings whose arms are truly invisible, O'Neill."

"If they were invisible, T, you might not have noticed them."

Teal'c frowned at him, then offered, "SG-4 encountered resistance yesterday. Perhaps they are in need of our assistance."

"No, Major Coburn reported that the situation was calming down," Carter countered. "I'd say a mineral or technological survey is more likely."

"Ah, come on," Jack dismissed. "That's so boring."

"Statistically, sir, it's the most likely probability, followed by meet-and-greets with locals."

Jack turned to Daniel. "What about you?"

Daniel had caught onto their ritual. He hesitated, then guessed, "Follow-up negotiations." He held up a hand and ticked off points: "You guys don't usually do in-depth cultural surveys, Sam would be aware of it if it were any other kind of research thing, and I'm not cleared for first-contact yet. So it must have to do with communication with locals."

Jack guessed they weren't really counting Kheb, in terms of first-contact. He also guessed bringing it up wouldn't be particularly tactful when Daniel clearly didn't really want to talk to him.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Jackson," General Hammond said as he walked in, "it's not quite so simple."

They rose to their feet in time to see Dr. Fraiser enter behind the general. "Uh-oh," Daniel said, looking at the doctor.

"Good to see you, too, Daniel," Fraiser said dryly.

Eyeing her warily as well, Jack quipped, "You know how I hate to hear that, sir."

"Don't we all, Colonel," Hammond said. "As you were."

Once they were all seated around the table, the general folded his hands on the table. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I received a call from the Pentagon. They're sending one of their people to ask about what happened with the Harsesis child on Kheb a few weeks ago."

Daniel's mouth made a silent 'oh.' His shoulders slumped, just for a second, before they came up again defensively.

"I take that back, Carter," Jack said, keeping his tone falsely casual but unable to hide his annoyance completely. "You know me. I love mineral surveys."

"Unfortunately for them," the general continued as if he hadn't spoken, "you all won't be here at Stargate Command during the next few days."

Jack raised his eyebrows, knowing they weren't next in the mission rotation and suspecting there was something being left unsaid. "Meaning...what, sir?"

"This isn't a ploy to avoid them," Hammond said immediately, seeing what Jack was thinking. "...entirely. But the timing does work out well for all of us. Doctor?"

Fraiser leaned forward, opening a folder and passing copies to the rest of them. "There's a lot of NID-run work being done at Area 51. Here are some of the reports they've sent to us here. Personally, I've been hoping to get some time to look at Hathor's sarcophagus, but there's plenty more I'd like to see. In fact, I'm sure all of the departments here would like to have some idea of the research they're doing."

Jack opened his folder, skimming past a few devices he remembered bringing back or seeing other teams bring back. There were a few others he didn't remember seeing before at all, and he focused on those.

"There's not a lot of information here," Daniel noted, fumbling his glasses onto his face.

"No, there's not," Carter said. "General, I've also been wanting to go to Nellis to take a look around. I'm sure Dr. Rothman's department might want to send a representative, as well, since he's away at the moment."

Daniel was already engrossed in reading something and didn't seem to have noticed the leading tone to Carter's suggestion, but in any case, he piped up, "I'd like to go, if I'm allowed. We've collected writing from planets left by the Ancient database, and I've made a lot of progress with the basic language structure, but there was so much that we had to send a lot of raw text to Area 51 for further study. It would be nice to know if they've gotten anywhere with our notes."

Now that it had been mentioned, there were things in these reports that Jack wouldn't mind finding out about, either. If it helped them avoid Pentagon lackeys sniffing around inside the SGC, that was a plus, too.

"Fine," Hammond said. "I'll let Dr. Rothman know." Daniel looked surprised at the agreement, then turned his attention back to the reports.

Jack took a grainy picture from the folder and brought it close to his face. "I don't recognize this thing, here," he said. "It's not identified, either."

"That is a Goa'uld healing device," Teal'c said.

"Really. A healing device," Fraiser repeated thoughtfully. "Is that hand-held?"

"Indeed. It is less effective than a sarcophagus, but I have nonetheless witnessed its ability to heal wounds that would otherwise prove fatal."

"This file doesn't say who brought it to Earth," Carter pointed out, paging through. "I don't remember seeing it pass through here, and I'm sure I wouldn't have missed something like that."

The general nodded. "I've looked through everything we've been sent. Most of it seems unremarkable, but I don't remember seeing that device any more than you do, Captain." He gave them all a pointed look.

"So Dr. Fraiser, Carter, and Daniel want to go," Jack said to the general. "Teal'c obviously knows more about some of this stuff than we do, so he's in. And I'd like to go along and keep an eye on them, sir."

"Agreed," Hammond told him. "You'll leave for Peterson in a few hours. The representative from Washington will meet you there."

"Really?" Jack asked with a grimace as he realized they weren't going to avoid it just by taking a trip to Area 51. "Does he have to?"

"Yes," the general said. "We'll kill two birds with one stone--you can clear up any confusion that remains about the Harsesis, and Dr. Fraiser has been asking to go to Nellis for a while now. This just seemed an opportune time. The Pentagon representative agreed to meet you there, because he'll be able to conduct a surprise check of the research facilities while there. That's why you'll all be dropping in unannounced as well."

"We can do that?" Daniel asked.

"And isn't the Pentagon in charge of the NID research?" Carter added.

"But they found out during the Hathor incident that some things have managed to stay under everyone's radar," Fraiser said. "The Pentagon's been keeping a closer eye on the Area 51 since then. Surprise inspections are within their authority, and we've cleared it with them to send some of our researchers along with."

Jack was pretty sure that was something like three birds with two stones, depending on how the stones and birds were counted, but what it meant was that the Pentagon guy would be spending less time scrutinizing SG-1 and Daniel's actions on Kheb. That was fine with him. "Do you suspect something's going on there again, General?" he had to ask.

Instead of answering directly, Hammond held up the file on the healing device. "Given the NID's track record, let's just say I suspect that looking at their activities might shift the Pentagon's focus off questioning you."

"And do we know who they're sending, sir?" Carter asked.

"Your plane will be met by a Major Paul Davis. He's just stepped in as the Pentagon's liaison with all Stargate operations. Anything else?"

Jack shook his head, answering, "No, sir."

"That's all, General," Fraiser added.

"You're authorized to stay there for three days to discuss the facility and any projects or concerns with the researchers," Hammond said, already rising. "Dismissed."

XXXXX

**_10 December 1998; Area 51; 1400 hrs_ **

"Major Davis?" Jack asked the man who met them at Homey Airport, watching him carefully. They'd had a few encounters with Area 51 and the Pentagon's interests regarding the Stargate, and he wasn't about to be taken off guard by anyone this time around.

"Yes, sir," the major replied with a brisk salute. "Is this everyone, Colonel?"

"Yep. Dr. Fraiser, here to speak with the medical researchers, and the team who went on the mission in question: Captain Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel Jackson."

Davis' eyes lingered a little on Teal'c and Daniel, the latter of whom was hitching his bag onto his shoulder and didn't notice, but he nodded, unfazed. "I understand you'd all like to take a look around the facility. I'm sure you already know I'm looking to do the same, so why don't we start there? I have a few questions for you that need clearing up, but if you don't mind, we'll do that at the end of the day."

"No argument from us," Jack said. "No point in a surprise inspection if it's not a surprise."

"That was my thought, sir," Davis agreed. Jack's impression of the man went up a cautious point. "Follow me."

"Don't you need special clearance to get in here?" Daniel said, jogging a little to catch up to the front of the group as they neared the security checkpoint.

"We have the highest clearance," Carter told him.

"Even me?"

Davis glanced at him. "I was under the impression you'd been here before."

"Yes, but with...escorts. By which," he added, "I mean 'guards.'"

"You do realize, Daniel," Jack said, "that we found _you_ the same way we find most of the stuff they study here?"

"Huh," he said. "I guess that's true."

They were met by a man at the security checkpoint who snapped quickly to attention at their approach. "Major Davis," the man said. "We just found out you were coming a few minutes ago. One of the research supervisors has been alerted, and he should be meeting us as soon as he can."

"Major," Davis greeted, then introduced, "Colonel O'Neill, this is Major Reynolds, NID. Major Reynolds--Colonel O'Neill, Captain Carter, Teal'c, Dr. Fraiser, and Daniel Jackson."

Jack watched the man carefully, but Reynolds' face only betrayed a flicker of surprise before he nodded back to Davis and turned to Jack, muted excitement plain in his voice. "I can't tell you what an honor it is to meet you all, sir. You guys are a bit of a legend around here."

"Really," Jack said, a little surprised at the warm reception. "Then you know who we are, obviously."

"Of course, sir," Reynolds answered. "We'd be out of business here if it weren't for the discoveries made at the SGC."

"Speaking of discoveries, why don't you give us the tour."

"Uh..." Reynolds said, glancing at Davis and asking, "I take it this is an...official tour?"

"Yes, sir, it is," Dr. Fraiser said firmly.

"Is that a problem?" Davis asked.

"No, uh. Of course not," Reynolds said, stepping back. "A little unexpected, but not a problem at all. Follow me."

With a final glance at the others, Jack followed the man into the building, Davis a step behind.

"Any preference about where to start?" Reynolds asked once they were inside.

"I'm interested in the Goa'uld healing device," Fraiser spoke up.

That gave the man some pause. "I...don't recall reading about a healing device in any of the reports."

Jack looked to Teal'c to explain, but Carter jumped in first. "It's unlikely that anyone knew what it was. Teal'c identified it for us, and I caught a glimpse of one for a few seconds off-world, but I'd be willing to bet no one else has even seen one. In fact, that information wasn't included in the report sent to General Hammond, so I assume that means no one knows."

Reynolds didn't seem to have heard the _'If I find out you knew and didn't tell us...'_ in her words, or else he didn't comment on it. "In that case, it's probably this way." He started down a corridor, explaining as he went, "There's a whole department devoted to analysis of devices we don't know much about, right by the Goa'uld technology sections."

As they started off, Jack asked Carter, "When did you see one of those things?"

"On Cimmeria, the first time," she said, "when you and Teal'c were inside the Hammer. I saw a woman using it to heal and thought it was a ribbon device at the time."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "The healing device can only be used by a Goa'uld, Captain Carter."

"Oh, the woman _had_ been a Goa'uld, according to Gairwyn, but she'd been through the Hammer, so by the time I saw her, she was a...previous host," she finished, her steps faltering. "Oh." She glanced at Jack, eyes wide. Jack shook his head minutely at her, not wanting to speculate about how many similarities she shared with the Goa'uld, not right here.

"That's what they figured," Reynolds said, having heard the conversation but not, apparently, having picked up implications to Carter. "That's why we've got so many things just sitting around. Study of the function of Goa'uld devices is very limited without a Goa'uld who can use them."

"What's that?" Daniel asked suddenly, looking through a window into another lab. "That looks like--"

"An iris," Reynolds told them. Jack followed their gazes as well to see what was unmistakably the metal shield that covered their Stargate. Except...not exactly.

"For what, a mini-gate?" Jack asked. The iris in that lab couldn't be much more than half the height of a regular doorway. "'Cause I hate to tell you, but you got one in the wrong size."

"It's probably just a scale model," Carter said, peering through as well. "They must be testing the design against various stresses."

"Ah," Jack said. As he watched, the scientists in the room flipped down face shields and stood back, one person moving to man something that looked like a very big...something, as shields lowered over the windows and blocked their view. "What's supposed to come out of that thing?"

"The ray gun?" Reynolds said. At their looks, he shifted in embarrassment and said, "That's...what some of us call it, anyway."

"Hey," Jack offered, "we call things on our end the ' _kawoosh_ ' and the 'garage-door opener.' Just saying."

Reynolds looked like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to smile and instead explained, "Officially, it's some kind of intense laser that--"

A flash of light escaped the shielding from inside the lab. Jack watched for a minute to wait for the shield to rise again and make sure everyone in the room hadn't been fried to death, only to see the people inside excitedly examining the iris. "Huh."

"Like I said, sir," Reynolds said. "Ray gun."

"That's a powerful laser," Carter said, her eyes lighting up like a Carter in an alien technology research facility. "I can see where it hit the iris, even after such a short duration. Very accurate, too. You've been working on them here for weapons applications?"

"It doesn't seem to have done much damage," Davis commented. Jack looked at the mini-iris and saw that, while there was a reddened area that was probably pretty hot at the moment, the iris was holding strong without a dent and was already cooling off.

Reynolds nodded. "That's because they're not testing the laser; we've had that for a while, and they're using it to test the new iris design. It's an alloy of titanium and trinium, that new metal SG-1 found. After SG-7 found and brought back a greater supply last month, we thought improving defenses should be a first priority."

"When will it be operational?" Fraiser asked.

"General Hammond should receive a preliminary report soon, if he hasn't received it already. As you can see, they're still doing a lot of testing, but we thought the decision to start using it or to continue trials should be handed over to you folks."

Davis nodded curtly. "That lab--it's fully protected?"

"Yes, sir," Reynolds said quickly. "All labs testing explosives, energy weapons, or unknown technology are shielded against radiation and are as well reinforced as the testing rooms under Cheyenne Mountain."

"I can't believe I didn't think of this myself," Carter said, inching toward the door. "Doping the iris with trinium...I wonder how much they had to use to achieve the most efficient--"

"Ah!" Jack warned. "One thing at a time, Carter. We've got three days to look around."

She reluctantly pulled her hand back from the handle of the outer doors of the lab. "Yes, sir."

"The Goa'uld tech room is at the end of the next hall," Reynolds prompted, leading them onward and pointing out a few other highlights on the way. "One of the linguistics offices is here; they're poring over your notes about the Ancient language, Mr. Jackson, as well as the Asgard text Dr. Rothman sent us."

Jack raised his eyebrows. Ancient writing had been found on many of the planets left from the Ancient database, and in some cases, staggering amounts of Ancient writing. Back at the SGC, Daniel had mentioned making progress on the language, but Jack hadn't realized they--and Daniel in particular--had made enough progress in translating it to have enough notes worth poring over. On the other hand, Daniel had been doing _something_ these last few weeks while he'd holed himself up on base, and he'd said that a lot of pure language or translation projects went to him rather than Rothman.

"This room here is where they're working on that chemical SG-2 brought back a few months ago," Reynolds continued. "They think it could be a cure for Alzheimer's."

"From P3X-595," Fraiser said, peeking into the lab. "I didn't think of that application."

"Guess it was useful after all," Jack said to Daniel, who nodded absently but didn't answer.

"Here it is," Reynolds finally announced, swiping into another lab, empty of people at the moment. "Goa'uld technology."

Jack looked past the lab benches and blinked at what looked like an entire wall of safes, each marked with a number and label.

"Who has access to these?" Major Davis asked.

"All the researchers and the officers overseeing the work," Reynolds said. "But the only devices in this lab are ones we know to be relatively harmless."

"And what's in there?" Carter asked, pointing at a more heavy-duty door locked by a card swipe and a keypad.

"You keep all the little green men back there?" Jack asked.

"There are no alien life forms at Area 51," Reynolds assured him.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and Daniel shifted his pack of books on his shoulder. "Well, that depends on what you mean by 'alien,' doesn't it," Daniel said, with a gleam of irritation in his eye that said he was in the mood to piss someone off. "If you mean 'not from Earth,' that's one thing; if you mean 'very different,' in a cultural sense, or that someone is not human--"

"Present company excluded," Jack interrupted before he could get going, because as much as he enjoyed bewildering federal agents, Carter was starting to look impatient, as well.

Reynolds wisely let it go. "We keep potentially dangerous devices in there under an additional layer of security."

"And 'potentially dangerous' would mean..."

"Things with unknown functions, or ones that might activate themselves or be activated by accident. In fact, sir, I would guess that the healing device you mentioned should be back here, too."

Once they were let in, Carter zeroed in on the cubbyholes separating one device from another and quickly found the one she was looking for. Jack easily recognized the gold color that characterized gaudy Goa'uld tech, though the device itself was unfamiliar. Reynolds entered a combination on the side of the container, and the door popped open.

"From what I saw," Carter said as she reached for it, "it looked like you just hold it in your hand, like this." She slipped her fingers through the slot and cupped the device in her palm to demonstrate, and the red crystal in the center immediately began to glow. "Whoa!"

Reynolds jumped back. Daniel and Fraiser stepped forward for a closer look. Carter quickly pulled off the device.

"What were you expecting?" Jack said.

Carter didn't seem in any hurry to try it again. "An on-switch? I didn't know just picking it up would--"

"Like you said, Captain," Fraiser said, quickly, calmly, and loudly, "that must be from what Jolinar left behind in your blood. It's probably automatically triggered by either touch or some other subtle mechanism." Reynolds took in the unworried expressions around him and relaxed a hair.

"Uh, yeah," she said, staring at it, though Jack noticed she was careful not to hold it anymore like she was going to use it.

Fraiser took up the baton then, taking the device from Carter without hesitation. "Do you know how much it can heal? What kind of things..."

"No," Carter answered. "I just saw it the once. A few seconds, that's all."

"I also am uncertain of the extent of the device's abilities," Teal'c said. "It was rarely used in my presence. I believe it is used primarily when a Goa'uld wishes his slaves to believe he has mystical powers."

"So," Jack summarized, "probably not as good as a sarcophagus, but it looks good. Wave your hand over someone's head, and he's healed."

"Precisely," Teal'c said.

"Well, we can't exactly test it out here, not without something to try to heal," Fraiser said matter-of-factly, turning it over in her hands. "But we should really figure that out. Something like this could literally be saving lives. There are other devices--the ribbon device, for instance--that scientists probably won't get very far with here, but we can continue research at the SGC."

"So Captain Carter can make them work, and no one else can?" Reynolds clarified.

"That is likely," Teal'c said simply.

"I'll make sure to tell my supervisor, then."

"We can't just bring them with us?" Jack asked, imagining the piles of paperwork it probably took to have things shipped from one place to another.

"There are regulations, Colonel," Major Davis told him. The joys of red tape. "The officer in charge of this division needs to sign off on it, but I don't see that it should be a problem."

"Yes," Carter said, recovering, "speaking of regulations...where did you get that healing device?"

Reynolds raised his eyebrows. "I don't remember, exactly, but I'm sure it's in the records somewhere."

The door slid open behind them. "It is," the newcomer's voice said. "It's from P8B-146, if I remember correctly."

Daniel choked. Jack turned to see who it was.

"Colonel... _Maybourne_?" Carter asked.

Holy crap.

Reynolds paused in what looked like aborted introductions. "I see you've met."

"Uh...in a way," Carter said, looking fascinated and confused and a little sick at the same time. "Sir?"

Colonel Harry Maybourne gave them all a bright smile. "Good to see you all. Why don't we step into the conference room next door?"

XXXXX

**_10 December 1998; Area 51; 1500 hrs_ **

"I thought you were dead," Jack said, incredulous, once they'd relocated. He glanced at Carter, who could only shake her head helplessly.

Everyone here had seen the tape of Maybourne's interrogation of Daniel the year before, and it wasn't a secret that Maybourne had been one of the people pushing hardest for Teal'c to be shipped off to Washington for study at the beginning of the program. Teal'c and Fraiser had also been part of the strike team that Carter had led against Hathor, when Maybourne had been turned briefly into a Jaffa, so Jack was the only one who'd never actually seen the man in the flesh before.

No one seemed particularly happy to see him.

Daniel's eyes had gone about as big as the frames of his glasses. Fraiser looked curious more than anything else, but Teal'c looked like he was Extremely Irritated, in the scary Jaffa way.

"I _was_ dead," Maybourne said easily. "Thanks for that, by the way, Captain Carter." He nodded to Reynolds, who saluted once and left.

Color drained from Carter's cheeks. "Sir, we didn't have a choice. Hathor would have--"

"Oh, don't worry, Captain," Maybourne cut her off, waving a lazy hand. "I was compromised, I understand. I really did mean it when I said 'thanks.' And Jack O'Neill--good to meet you."

"Whoa!" Jack said, slashing an arm in front of his face as if it would clear things up. "Okay. Let's try this again. Not that we're not...glad to see you, ah, not dead. But how are you _not_ _dead_?"

"The sarcophagus," Maybourne replied nonchalantly and held out his arms. "Good as new. Not even a larval Goa'uld pouch to show for it."

When no one spoke, Davis cleared his throat delicately. "I take it this development comes as a surprise to you, Colonel O'Neill?"

Jack gave him a look. "Yes, I'm a little surprised. You're not?"

"It was never a secret, Jack," Maybourne said. The use of his given name was odd, since they'd never met each other, and if this was some kind of power play, Jack had expected more subtlety based on what he knew of the man. And more than that, his appearance was almost careless--even in his dress blues, his jacket was unbuttoned and hung on his shoulders just a bit off-kilter, and he stood casually, his arms dangling at his sides. "I was off the scene for a while, and it's not like you've kept in close contact with NID operations from Stargate Command. Now, as I said, that device you have there is from P8B-146..."

"Hold on--sir, excuse me," Fraiser interrupted before they could continue. "So the sarcophagus _has_ been used since the Hathor incident? You were healed completely?"

"After a fashion," Maybourne said. "The scientists have determined that it can most likely heal even an obliterated immune system, but once a person has been carrying a larval Goa'uld around for a day or two...it took several repeated uses for me to be restored to health."

Jack exchanged a glance with Carter, whose eyes were wide. "Colonel Maybourne," she said, "you were healed...'after a fashion?'"

Maybourne turned to her. "I find that occasional use still helps, but I am fully capable of continuing to work, now."

"Um," Daniel said, holding up a finger. He made a face. "There's something you should know about that."

"How many times have you been inside the sarcophagus, sir?" Fraiser asked sharply.

"As many times as necessary," Maybourne answered. "Besides, it's letting us study the effects of the sarcophagus without needing to expose more people than necessary to it."

Fraiser took a deep breath, as if to start a tirade, then paused and pointed out more calmly, "This sounds like the kind of testing the SGC should have been aware of."

"We're obligated to show you our _results_ ," Maybourne corrected. "Your scientists don't exactly give us regular progress reports for ongoing experiments, either. Testing hasn't been completed on the sarcophagus."

"By 'testing,' you mean human experimentation that's been going on without any preliminary trials," she said, her voice carefully neutral. "And you--the only subject, I might add--haven't felt any...side effects."

"Oh, I have," Maybourne said, smiling now in a vague way that raised Jack's hackles. "But I promise you, Doctor; they're all good effects."

Jack just bet they were. "Mm-hm," Fraiser said. "Could you describe them to me?"

The smug attitude faded and gave way to suspicion. "Why do you ask?"

"All in the name of science, Colonel," she said primly, plunging her hands into the pockets of her lab coat and looking up imperiously.

"I'm sure. All the same, I think--"

" _I'm_ sure there would be no good reason for anything involving unbiased, scientific research to remain a secret, sir," she cut in. "On the other hand, I do understand that this is part of your medical record that you may wish to keep private."

"Doc..." Jack started.

"Sir, I was just thinking that Colonel Maybourne should be alerted to the detrimental side-effects that the sarcophagus might be having on his physical wellbeing."

Maybourne laughed, the sound open and careless. "Don't worry yourself, Doctor; there are none."

"Oh, no, _Harry_ ," Jack put in now, "that's where you're wrong."

Davis cast a glance between them, looking a bit bemused at the obvious tension in the room but determined to hold the situation together. "Colonel, do you know that for certain?"

"Yes," Jack and Maybourne said together.

The assurance that Maybourne had been wearing since he'd walked in dissipated quickly to irritation. "You've seen it used, what, once or twice? I've experienced it myself more times than you can--"

"Okay, now, _that_ would be a problem," Jack said.

"Colonel," Davis said with suppressed impatience, "could someone just explain this, sir?"

"It's like a drug," Jack said, happy to stop playing games tiptoeing around it anymore. "If you use it too much, it makes you"--he gestured vaguely, searching for a term, then settled on--"high as a kite." Davis looked at him. "I believe that's the technical term," he added.

"How would you possibly know that?" Maybourne snapped.

"We've observed temporary behavioral effects following revival with a sarcophagus," Fraiser said. "We've also documented biochemical changes in the patient's body, and all of these changes were consistent with the effects seen in someone using narcotics. Master Bra'tac of the Jaffa confirmed that that side effect isn't unique to the one case we saw."

Maybourne's eyes narrowed, and Jack could almost see him trying to think a way out of that. "Temporary," he finally said. He shot a look at Daniel. "I can only assume you're talking about Daniel, here, and the incident on the Goa'uld mothership."

Daniel frowned deeply, his entire body stiff, and Jack threw his hands up in exasperation. "Do you know _every_ thing that goes on at--?" he started.

"Yes," Maybourne interrupted. "The point is, obviously, even if you're right about the effects, they wear off just fine."

Fraiser shook her head. "If it's used once or twice, infrequently. Colonel Maybourne, use of any narcotic brings a risk of dependence. I find it difficult to believe that something like the sarcophagus could be used so many times without any consequences at--"

"Oh, come on!" Maybourne burst out, his voice conspicuously loud in the silence that followed. Daniel started and took a step back, looking surprised at the sudden change in attitude, and both Teal'c and Carter tensed as if preparing to take action. Jack wasn't surprised at all; he was inclined to trust Fraiser on this one, and he knew all too well how surprising it wasn't. "'Difficult to believe.' How many times have you been proven wrong over the past year? I think I would know if I were hooked on something."

"Spoken like a true junkie," Jack said.

"You would know, wouldn't you Jack?" Maybourne shot back. Jack had a moment to wonder just how the hell Maybourne had access to that part of his files, and then his energy was taken up clenching his fists in his pockets to stop himself from snapping back that whatever had happened after he'd crawled out of Iraq was not remotely the same as jumping into a Goa'uld sarcophagus for the hell of it.

"Whether or not we're right about its long-term effects," Fraiser said firmly, "I would recommend that all testing on the sarcophagus be suspended, except in the extreme circumstances of grave injury or death. Moreover, for your own good, Colonel, I think you need to be monitored closely by a medical professional until we're certain."

"This isn't Stargate Command; you don't have authority here," Maybourne said immediately, puffing up angrily.

"Then I'll make my recommendation to someone who does. I was planning to speak with your chief medical officer in any case," she said politely. "I'll make sure I go through the proper channels. How long ago did you last use the sarcophagus, Colonel?"

He glared at her for a moment, then said, reluctantly and almost petulantly, "Yesterday. What's your point?"

"Why don't we conduct an experiment, sir," Fraiser said. Her tone said it wasn't a question. "By my estimates, based on my admittedly limited observations and your own words that you've used the sarcophagus countless times, you'll begin to experience symptoms from withdrawal fairly soon." She paused and looked at him more closely. "If it hasn't started already. In the meantime, don't use the sarcophagus at all for the next...say, week."

"You're wrong about this, Captain," Maybourne said.

If she was nervous at his deliberate use of her rank, she didn't show it. Unlike the others in the room, Fraiser had been a civilian doctor for years before joining the military; she didn't have the reflexive discomfort that someone like Carter felt when going toe-to-toe with a superior officer. Besides, Fraiser snapped at Jack all the time, so she had practice. Either way, with Davis around, this wouldn't go unreported to the Pentagon. "If I am wrong," she reasoned, "you won't suffer any negative effects from the withdrawal, Colonel, and you'll be proven right."

"I don't have any need to _prove_ things to you!"

"No, sir, you don't. But I think we'd all like this facility to remain as secure as possible, and a person acting under the influence of the effects of an alien device could easily pose a threat," she pointed out, with a glance at Major Davis.

In a low, tight voice, Maybourne reminded her, " _If_ you're right." He took a step closer to loom over her, only to have Teal'c insert himself between them to do some looming of his own.

"Did you know," Daniel said idly, fiddling with the strap of his backpack, "that in Jaffa culture, a warrior could claim the right to dismember someone who tried to harm a friend? Not that anyone would, of course, since we're not in a Jaffa society right now. I just thought it was worth noting." Carter's lips twitched. Jack made sure not to smile himself, but he pointedly didn't tell anyone off, either.

"Dr. Fraiser is usually correct in matters of physical wellbeing," Teal'c added, standing just close enough to emphasize that he was much larger than Maybourne. Maybourne looked a little nervous for the first time since they'd arrived, and Jack regretted that Teal'c hadn't been available that time when Maybourne had walked into the SGC.

"They do have a point about the sarcophagus, Colonel," Davis put in, looking somewhere between thoughtful and disturbed.

Maybourne looked as if he wanted to shout them all down by dint of the fact that he was the highest ranking officer in the room, aside from Jack, which was probably why Jack ended up getting the brunt of the final glare. Jack raised his eyebrows and shrugged back. Finally, Maybourne straightened his rumpled lapel, put some distance between himself and Teal'c, and said, " _I'm_ in control of my faculties, not some alien device. But if you want to play this game, despite the fact that we could be learning valuable information about Goa'uld healing technology, then fine. I'll play. I'll have research on that project cut off for the next seven days."

"Thank you, sir. That sounds like a good idea," Fraiser said calmly, the way Jack had once heard her speak to a patient on the verge of cracking up after ingesting an odd, hallucinogenic alien substance. "Now, Colonel, about that healing device--what planet did you say it was from? P8B...?"

"146," Maybourne finished, biting off the numbers.

Jack looked to Carter, who shook her head. "I don't remember an exploration to that planet, sir."

"Well, SG-1's not the only team, is it, Captain Carter?" Maybourne snapped.

Carter ducked her head for a moment. Jack used to think it was a deference thing, even an apology, but he learned quickly enough that it was just like her _'all due respect, sir, but...'_ In other words, ' _you're completely wrong, sir, and I may or may not mean any respect at all, but I don't want to get reprimanded, either, so..._ '

"With all due respect, sir," she started, and Jack smirked a little on the inside, "which team _did_ bring it back? Something like this should have caught our attention when it was brought through the 'gate. We have three research departments represented here, and none of us remembers seeing it. We'd really like to know what went wrong so it can be prevented in the future."

"Unfortunately," Maybourne countered, "I can't help you there. I can show you the information that we do have about this item, but that's all we received. Sometimes if it's deemed irrelevant, we don't receive detailed reports about the items shipped over here. The SGC keeps a lot of secrets."

"You couldn't just find the mission report with the right planet?" Carter pressed, frowning. "I know there are a lot to go through, but if you have the electronic copies, it should be a simple matter of doing a search for P8--"

"I know how to search a document for information, Captain," he interrupted. "And it's already done. After we couldn't find it, we were starting to wonder whether the SGC might have been somewhat less than open with us."

"Oh, please," Jack said impatiently, thinking that if this was Maybourne's idea of a cover up, it was sloppy as all hell. What was that about? No one made O-6 by being stupid. "We're the ones who flew a couple of hours to straighten this out. You really think we would've come at all if we were hiding something?"

Maybourne shrugged then. "Do you have another explanation?"

"A few," Jack said.

"I guess we'll all have to check again, sir," Carter said, apparently sensing the imminent stalemate. "But we were also hoping to look at some of the projects you have going here to make sure we're all on the same page."

"I'd like to look at the sarcophagus, for instance," Fraiser added.

Immediately, Maybourne focused accusingly on Fraiser. "So that's why you wanted us to stop using it here--you want it for yourselves, don't you? I should've known that's what you were after. Well, the answer is 'no'--it stays _here!_ "

"No..." she answered slowly. "I wanted to _look_ at it, Colonel, and to ask the scientists in charge a few questions--that's all."

As if noticing everyone's gazes on him, Maybourne relented, scowling again. "The sarcophagus is next door, along with the Goa'uld scripts we're going over."

Daniel perked up. "Can I see that, too?"

"We'll start there, then," Jack said.

"Actually, sir," Carter said, "I'd like to talk to the people working on the iris, if that's okay?"

In the end, Major Davis went with Carter to ask the mechanical engineers some questions, Fraiser went with Teal'c to the infirmary to suggest what blood tests to perform on Maybourne and to tell the CMO that _yes, Doctor, I really do think they need to be done as soon as possible, please and thank you_ , and Jack found himself in a room behind an extra layer of security, staring at a sarcophagus again for the first time since Abydos '82 while waiting for Fraiser to come in.

"Hello," Jack said when two geeks looked up at their approach. The sarcophagus was tucked into a corner, almost unobtrusive, except that he'd seen ones like it raise people from the dead, so it was hard not to stare. As if they were used to being interrupted and ignoring the interruptions, the scientists turned back to the papers they were all perusing.

Jack expected Daniel to be joining them immediately with a few questions, but, when it didn't happen, he glanced over to see him staring at the sarcophagus instead. Daniel stepped toward it, peering at the surface. He traced a finger over a symbol that Jack thought was probably Hathor's, interested, perhaps, in the writing that snaked around the box. For a minute, it was just looking; then a hand crept toward the seam where the sarcophagus opened, and Jack decided it was time to step in.

Before he could say anything, though, an SF let Fraiser in, and the sound of an opening door distracted Daniel into looking away, snatching his hand back.

"Jack, c-could I... uh, the linguistics people were...you know. The Ancient. Um. Stuff," Daniel said, looking rattled.

Maybe the thing reminded him of being tortured to death by Klorel. That would put a damper in most people's excitement.

"Yeah," Jack said, catching Teal'c's eye. "Meet up at 1800, remember." He watched long enough to see both of them head back out the way they'd come, then settled in resignedly to watch Fraiser talk to the scientists and ask them about _the extent of its regenerative capacity, even without an immune system upon which to build its..._

XXXXX

**_10 December 1998; Area 51; 1810 hrs_ **

"I'm not here to point fingers at anyone," Davis assured them once they were alone in a small conference room. Fraiser was out bugging the people trying to cure Alzheimer's. Daniel was off his research high and was slouching at a corner of the table that placed him farthest from Davis, while SG-1 sat stiffly at attention or tapped their fingers restlessly on the arm of the chair. The latter was mostly Jack, admittedly.

"Frankly, sir," Carter said, "we're not sure what the issue is at all."

Shuffling a few papers, Davis nodded. "I've just been asked to debrief you; I'm sure you understand there were a lot of questions about the...Harsesis, and we need some clarification on your mission to the planet known as Kheb. As our foremost experts on these matters, we'd also like to hear what you believe the consequences might be for us. The information we received was pretty scant."

"That's because there's a lot we don't understand ourselves," she explained. "Most of what we do believe is pure speculation based on the observations we were able to make while there."

"Yes--that seems to be par for the course," he said.

"Hey, these _are_ alien planets," Jack countered defensively. "I'd like to see anyone learn more than we did."

Davis seemed surprised. "I wasn't trying to be critical, Colonel O'Neill. It was just an observation."

Jack eyed him suspiciously. "Aliens," he emphasized, just to make sure his point was taken.

"Yes, sir. But knowing what you did about the Harsesis, as well as what you knew about Kheb and the beings there, what exactly made you think your decision to leave the child there was the best one?"

Jack carefully didn't look at Daniel, because he was the commander, dammit, and he wasn't supposed to pass this off even if he was still trying to figure out the answer for himself, except that Daniel took the decision out of his hands just before he could start to speak.

"By that time, several separate sources had implied that a Harsesis could be dangerous to the Tau'ri," Daniel said. "Master Bra'tac of the Jaffa and Sha'uri of Abydos seemed to think that Shi--the Harsesis could be dangerous either to us or to the Goa'uld, depending on the situation. If System Lords were to attack Earth again in order to retrieve the Harsesis, there wouldn't be a lot we could do to stop them. We couldn't safely keep him on Earth."

"That's a lot of trust you put in the beings of Kheb, then," Davis pointed out after a glance at the rest of them, as if to make sure he could and should take the word of the kid in front of him. "How certain were you that they could safeguard the Harsesis any better than we could, and that they wouldn't give him up to the Goa'uld? Your reports mentioned that the being vacated the planet, and that you don't know where it might have taken the Harsesis."

"We were pinned down by a bunch of Jaffa," Jack said. "Lightning bolts killed them all and brought a death glider out of the sky. That was pretty convincing."

"The beings were clearly very powerful, sir," Davis agreed. "But it still leaves the question of trust. We simply need to know that it wasn't...well--"

"Blind faith?" Daniel cut in sharply. Jack turned at hearing his own words that he'd used on Kheb, but Daniel was carefully not looking back at him. "You need to know it wasn't just blind faith, yes?"

Davis hesitated, then nodded. "More or less."

"The child wasn't yours. He wasn't even Earth's. He was the son of Sha'uri of Abydos, and since she was...unavailable to take care of him, his care fell to her closest relative." Daniel tilted his head. "I may still be learning your laws, but I believe that would be true on Earth as well as on her native planet."

"And you're saying that you were that closest relative?"

"No," Daniel said, "that would be her father, Kasuf. But Kasuf did hand the Harsesis's care over to me, and responsibility for decisions about the child that concerned the war and his wellbeing was assigned to me by General Hammond. I did what I thought best as a member of the SGC and as his legal next-of-kin."

"I'm not insensitive to that," Davis said carefully, looking a little thrown, "but that doesn't change the fact that the Harsesis could have been a valuable resource to us."

"The Harsesis," Daniel answered stiffly, his words chosen to be as careful and sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, "was an infant. He was not yours to use as a resource, and I hope no one on Earth would have been willing to abuse him as such."

Davis stared at him, then let his gaze flicker over the rest of them. When no one said anything to add or contradict, he said, "I see."

"If it helps," Daniel offered after a pause, in what was clearly meant to be a conciliatory tone, "it did seem the best option at the time, for Earth as well as for Abydos and Shifu. Goa'uld forces saw us taking him to Kheb, so anyone who wants him now will most likely seek him there, and not here. I included other reasons for that conclusion in my report."

"It is unlikely that we could have carried out any other action," Teal'c added. "The being we knew as Oma Desala was many times more powerful than anything I have witnessed."

"She wouldn't have taken Shifu by force," Daniel insisted.

Teal'c tilted his head noncommittally. "Perhaps."

"Lightning bolts," Jack put in. Daniel looked at him out of the corner of his eye, pressed his lips together, and looked away again. They still weren't on the same page about something here, but they all knew better than to broadcast internal tension in front of an external official.

Finally, Davis nodded in acceptance. "All right. And there's no chance of going back? To document the writing in the temple you found, if for no other reason?"

"Not without risk, not without knowing if there's still a benevolent alien guarding the planet," Jack said, much more comfortable now that they were talking about something he understood on a level deeper than just accepting that Daniel and Bra'tac had known what they were doing. No one knew exactly what had happened to the monk guarding the temple, but Jack would be willing to bet the guy had been more powerful than they'd thought; for all they knew, he was one of the glowy race of aliens, too. "Other Goa'uld might go looking for the Harsesis there, and anyone near the temple can be easily cut off from the Stargate with no escape route."

"In that case, we need to know if there will be any repercussions."

"One positive outcome," Carter said, "is that Heru-ur and has lost most or all of his power following the expeditions to Cimmeria and Kheb."

Davis nodded. "But he himself wasn't killed?"

"We think Heru-ur and Amaunet both escaped from Cimmeria," she said. "And the Goa'uld fear Kheb; Heru-ur might not have been there himself when his Horus Guards were killed. It's likely that he's still alive somewhere, but severely weakened."

"Apophis is alive," Jack said, "but we know he's been pretty desperate in trying to increase his army."

"But in the grand scheme of things, what does that mean?" Davis asked, looking to Apophis's former First Prime.

Teal'c raised his chin. "Apophis and Heru-ur may either seek each other for aid or fall to the mercy of some stronger System Lord."

"Would that be a good thing?" Davis asked. "As I understand it, the Goa'uld are competitive. If one of them gets removed from the picture by another, especially without much of an army to be subsumed by the victor..."

"The Goa'uld are driven not only by power but also by vengeance," Teal'c said. "The stronger System Lord could keep a fallen enemy alive indefinitely and use him as a symbol of his conquest."

"In other words," Jack summarized, "when one goes down, another one can use him to get more power."

"It is also possible that another Goa'uld would rise to take his place among the System Lords," Teal'c said.

"Is that likely?"

"Apophis has named his son as his heir."

"Klorel," Daniel said, though his tone was so wooden that Jack couldn't tell whether he was trying to clarify for Major Davis or just thinking aloud.

Teal'c nodded once. "If he falls, Klorel may seek to claim his inheritance."

"Basically, sir," Carter said, "the current power structure has been destabilized at a few significant points, but all we can do now is watch carefully to see which way the chips fall and keep trying in the meantime to increase our defensive capabilities. We have a lot of designs currently in development or in testing stages--I'm sure you know about those projects already."

"Yes, we do," Davis said. "About that...more and more of our developing technology recently has been incorporating naquadah from sources like Abydos. I assume you've spoken with Abydos since the expedition to Kheb?"

"We have," Jack said. "We went to speak with them ourselves the day after. They are fully aware of everything that happened with the Harsesis."

Davis waited, but when no elaboration came, he prompted, "And they're fine with it? They were convinced that it was the right course of action?"

There was a barely perceptible hesitation, and then Daniel spoke up to say simply, "Yes."

The trip had taken almost an entire day, so Jack suspected it wasn't quite that simple--it couldn't have been, really, when kids and family and interplanetary politics were all involved--but they'd left on good terms, the mining was happily continuing, and SG-6 seemed to be on speaking and joking terms with the native Abydons, who were as curious about the Tau'ri as they were about all the machinery. Daniel would only say that whatever had taken him so long was personal, not business. Teal'c hadn't found it appropriate to offer a translation, either, so Jack had decided not to poke any further into it.

"Is there any possibility that the Harsesis will be found again?" Davis asked.

"I don't know," Daniel said evenly. "Believe me, Major, no one hopes to find Shifu again more than I do."

For an alarming moment, Jack thought he saw Daniel's eyes glistening, but when he looked again, he decided it was a trick of the light off the glasses. And Daniel was back to staring at the table, unnaturally calm in a way that freaked Jack out almost more than tears in front of the Pentagon would have.

When no one else spoke, Jack asked, "Is that it?"

"I think so, Colonel," Major Davis said, organizing a few things and standing up. "I'm not going back to Washington until tomorrow evening, so if there's anything else, I'll find you." He paused, then said, "Sir, Colonel Maybourne seemed to believe there was an issue with the healing device..."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Major--we think there's an issue, too."

"That was the only one of the devices we were told about that we didn't recognize," Carter explained. "We just want to figure out where it came from and how it ended up in this facility." _And if there are others_ , she left unsaid.

"I'd like to know how that stunt with the sarcophagus was allowed to start in the first place," Jack added.

"Because Colonel Maybourne was killed, Jack," Daniel said suddenly, shooting at look at him that was laden with an extra dose of annoyance. "He didn't exactly have a choice."

"Not at first, maybe," Jack said.

"Perhaps Dr. Fraiser will have further information," Teal'c suggested, firmly stopping them just as Daniel opened his mouth to respond. "We will learn no more of Colonel Maybourne's activities before then."

Understanding, Davis nodded again. "I'll keep all of that in mind. And if Colonel Maybourne's unavailable, I'll make sure the healing device and other relevant technology also gets sent to the SGC."

Jack stood immediately. "Good. Now let's go find Fraiser and pick this up tomorrow. Ah!" he added when Carter looked about to protest. "Tomorrow, Captain."


	16. Consequences, Part II

**_11 December 1998; Area 51; 0900 hrs_ **

"I've been thinking," Daniel said as they walked through the corridors, trailing after Carter, who was herself following Major Reynolds at a distance. Fraiser was off doing something with someone in some lab or infirmary, which meant the rest of them had been roped into falling in line behind Carter as she sniffed out the coolest piece of new tech, although Jack was getting a little wary of the way Daniel was eyeing some of the linguistics offices.

"Well, stop it," Jack said automatically, because it was such an easy line.

Daniel ignored him. "If the healing device had come through the SGC, one of us would have seen it. For a Goa'uld object, when no one knew what it was--even though Sam would have known--someone should have asked Teal'c if he recognized it, even if somehow none of us here noticed it."

"So..."

"So, it didn't come through our Stargate," Daniel said.

"Y'think?" That was the one thing they'd already known before arriving.

"The only other possibility I could think of at first was that it was left behind by some Goa'uld before the Stargate was buried at Giza, and the NID picked it up between the first Abydos mission and the restarting of the Stargate program. We know they kept working during those years. But that's not possible, either." Reynolds glanced back at them, as if wondering what they were saying, but didn't ask and didn't comment.

Carter nodded. "You mean because they have a planet designation for where it was found."

"Which they couldn't know if they had just found it lost on Earth somewhere," Daniel agreed.

"They could've made that up. Pulled the designation out of the air," Jack said, but Carter shook her head.

"I don't think so, sir. I called back to the base to check. P8B-146 _is_ one of the planets found on the Abydos cartouche, but not one we've been to. In fact, its coordinates were recalculated just about a week ago, long after the device had arrived here."

"You're sure we've never been there."

"Positive. Without recalculation, we literally couldn't have established a wormhole, much less sent a team."

Jack hated having to ask, but... "Who did you call, Captain?"

"Sir, I don't think Colonel Maybourne was right when he said the problem might be on our end," she said, "but I had to make sure. I called two technicians independent of each other to check the database, and I had Sergeant Siler go through the dialing computer to check for tampering without telling him why I was asking. General Hammond confirmed that there have never been any missions to P8B-146. Everything checks out with enough people that I think we're safe on our side."

"Good," he said, relieved. They didn't need problems on more than one front, and definitely not in their own backyard. "So it definitely never came through our 'gate."

She stopped. Jack pulled up short just before he could run into her.

Reynolds noticed belatedly and walked back to them to see what the problem was. "Captain? Colonel?"

Carter turned around to look at Jack. "They have another Stargate here," she said.

Jack stared at her, hoping she would chuckle and tell him that she was _just_ _kidding, sir, there was no way_ \--except... "Crap," he said.

"Well, we don't know if they're actually using it--"

Screw that. "Reynolds," Jack said, "where are they keeping it?"

"The Antarctica Stargate, sir?" Reynolds answered, confused and indignant at the implication.

"What, is there another one?" Jack returned. Then, more seriously, "There's not another one, is there?" It was Area 51, after all. Stranger things had probably happened.

"As far as I know, it hasn't been moved in years. It should still be down in the--"

"After you, Major," he interrupted, ignoring Carter's reproving look. Reynolds looked like he wanted to argue, then turned and led the way.

"Jack," Daniel said, trotting a little to catch up, "you don't think they're really...I mean, that's a pretty extreme possibility based on a few possibilities we _might_ have ruled out."

Jack thought about just how long the Stargate had been in this facility without anyone's knowledge and replied, "You were the one suspicious about them last year, Daniel. You have another suggestion?" His silence was answer enough. Carter looked like she wanted to offer something, but shook her head as well. "Well, then. No offense, Major," he added to Reynolds, "but if it's something else, we'll find out pretty soon, and we're the ones who'll end up looking like the asses."

Reynolds spared him a glance and replied with an unhappy, "Yes, sir."

The hidden underground section of the facility that Carter's team had found when Hathor had tried to escape through the so-called Antarctica Stargate wasn't hidden anymore, now that everyone knew someone had dragged a 'gate in here. It also apparently wasn't being used, anymore, since no one was in the area when they walked in, and there was only a large box lying flat on the ground in place of the Stargate.

"I don't think there's been much work done on this project recently," Reynolds said. "Both the 'gate and the DHD were packed away for storage after the scientists figured out how the DHD worked, as far as they could, but everything's right over there, in the boxes."

Jack glanced at Carter, who confirmed, "I've read their final reports, and, combined with what we've seen ourselves, they would've needed technology as advanced as the Ancient database to figure out more information than they sent us."

"Can you tell if it's been used?" he asked her as Daniel moved toward the box that housed the Stargate, starting to pull off the top and to peer interestedly into it at the subtle differences between this 'gate and the one they used at the SGC. "It came with a DHD, after all; it could've been used to get anywhere."

"I can't tell directly, sir, not without computer analysis of the storage crystals, but I can take a look."

"Fine," he said, gesturing her forward. Carter made her way to the crate that the DHD was stored in. "Reynolds, you know who was involved in this project?"

"Like I said, sir, no one at the moment," Reynolds repeated. "I'm not one of the scientists, and I'm still relatively new around here. There are other people who'd have a better idea--Agent Barrett, maybe, or Lieutenant Tobias, she's involved with almost all the research."

Carter looked up briefly. "Clare Tobias?"

"Yeah," Reynolds confirmed.

Jack raised his eyebrows at her. "Friend of yours, Carter?"

"I knew her from the Academy," she explained as she opened the box containing the DHD. "Brilliant. If the SGC hadn't been looking for theoretical physicists more than mechanical engineers in the early days, she probably would've been there with us right now. I guess she never reapplied because she got a position here."

"We're gonna want to talk to Tobias," Jack told Reynolds. Someone who'd known enough about the Stargate program to try to get in, whom even Carter thought was brilliant...not really a question why the NID would want her.

"Yes, sir," Reynolds said stiffly. "I'll have someone page her once you're done here."

Suddenly, Daniel turned, his brow furrowed and one hand pressed against the Stargate. "Teal'c? This feels...strange."

"What, like not stone?" Jack asked.

"No. Yes. Well...no," Daniel replied in his typically clear way. He didn't explain until Teal'c was there, as well. "Do you feel that?"

"Nothing," Teal'c said, but it was a low, ominous tone, not dismissive.

"Uh, Colonel," Carter said a second later, pulling up the cover over the DHD's control crystals. "The crystals have been replaced with plastic. And the DHD itself doesn't seem to contain naquadah."

Reynolds did a double-take, hurrying forward to check for himself. "What?"

"It's _what_?" Jack echoed.

"Fake, sir," she said helplessly.

"As is the Stargate," Teal'c confirmed, running experienced fingers over the ring. "I am also unable to detect the presence of naquadah."

To his credit, Reynolds looked genuinely shocked as he asked, "Are...are you sure?"

Jack pointed at the team around him. "We've got one person with a symbiote in his stomach, one person with the Goa'uld protein, and one person with trace naquadah in his blood. The only better naquadah sensor than these three is--"

"Sir, zero readings," Carter said, holding up a handheld device.

"--a naquadah sensor," Jack finished. "So, Major Reynolds, your turn. Want to explain?"

"I...can't, sir," Reynolds insisted.

Jack peeked at the fake ring of stone and rolled his eyes. "Hell, even I can tell this thing isn't real! Haven't you ever seen a Stargate before?"

"No, sir," Reynolds said. "Not outside of pictures."

That gave him pause, and he realized that, given how new this line of work was and how drastically the Stargate sections of Area 51 had been reorganized just in the last year, there was a good probability that someone recently assigned here, like Reynolds, never would have seen a real Stargate, especially if research on it had been stopped. That left, then, a smaller pool of people who could have a hand in this.

"Major, think about what the punishment is for losing a Stargate," Jack warned, probing for information. "I shouldn't have to tell you how serious this is."

"No, sir, no, you don't--but I _can't_ explain it, because I don't know how this could have happened. This place is guarded twenty-four seven, and Colonel Maybourne's usually--"

"Ah. Maybourne," Jack repeated, catching on the name and easily willing to believe Maybourne had something to do with it. "Where is he now, Major?"

More subdued, Reynolds replied, "Last I heard, he was being confined in the infirmary, sir. He seems to be experiencing some kind of..." He hesitated.

"Narcotic withdrawal?" Carter inserted.

"Apparently, yes."

_Told you so_ , Jack barely stopped himself from saying. "He's your supervisor?" he asked instead. "Have you noticed anything...odd about him?"

"I haven't been working here long," Major Reynolds said again, but admitted, "He _has_ been pretty absent in recent weeks. I thought that might be just how he was."

"When I met him, Colonel Maybourne struck me as a very meticulous person about everything," Daniel offered.

"Well," Jack said. "I think we need to find him and have a chat."

XXXXX

**_11 December 1998; Area 51; 1030 hrs_ **

Someone was yelling in the direction of the infirmary. Alarmed, Jack picked up his pace and realized it wasn't someone so much as some _ones_ , and by the time he reached the door--

"Oh my god," Carter said.

"Daniel, no, don't come in," Jack said, pushing him back, away from the door, but not before he got a good eyeful of Harry Maybourne strapped to the bed, pulling against his restraints while a nurse hurriedly pressed an oxygen mask onto his face and people bustling around the bed yelled about _heart rate's through the roof_ and _respiration_ and _shutting down_ \--

" _Ay_ ," Daniel breathed as he was pulled away, so stunned he wasn't even resisting. "Is that Colonel Maybourne? What--what's wrong with him?" He flinched as a crash sounded, like a tray of something falling off a table.

Jack peeked back in and caught sight of Dr. Fraiser assisting. As if she could feel his gaze, Fraiser glanced up and said tersely, "Not now, Colonel."

Another doctor next to her ordered, "Everyone without a medical degree--out. _Now_."

Jack barely backed out before the door slammed in his face, cutting off both shouts and sights. "So," he said, looking around himself and finding Major Davis there, as well, apparently drawn to the commotion.

"What were they doing to him?" Daniel asked, looking horrified. "They tied him to the _bed_."

"Yeah," Carter said, her tone disturbed. "I guess we were right about the effects of the sarcophagus. I just never imagined the withdrawal would be quite so...severe." She blinked at the closed door, then shook her head as if to clear it. "Oh. Whoa."

"That's from the _sarcophagus_?" Daniel was saying. "That's what happens to you if you're addicted to it?"

"I can't believe this," Reynolds muttered, rubbing his head.

"Which part?" Jack said. "The thing with Maybourne or the fake Stargate?"

"Both, sir," Reynolds said, as Major Davis turned to them to echo, "Fake _Stargate_?"

"Yeah, something you might want to mention to your bosses," Jack told Davis. "The real Stargate is missing. Color me surprised."

"It's...missing?"

"We came here to ask Colonel Maybourne about it," Carter said, shaking her head again like she was trying to get water out of her ears or something. Jack frowned, wondering what was going on with her, but she looked like she was too busy trying to figure something out to notice. "We suspect the real Stargate may have been in use at some point."

"Hate to break it to you, Captain," Jack said, trying to erase the images of Maybourne from his mind, looking almost lifeless until he reacted violently to something some doctor did. It was the man's own damn fault. Maybourne had brought this on himself; what kind of idiot subjected himself to alien devices any more than he absolutely had to? His own fault. Right? Right. Jesus. "But I don't think we're talking to him any time soon."

"You think?" Daniel said, his voice distracted and still stiff with shock.

"What?" Jack asked him, surprised.

"What?" Daniel replied blankly.

The opening of the infirmary door interrupted them. Fraiser stuck her head out, hands still gloved. "Clear the hallway," she told them breathlessly. "His condition's deteriorating. We need to get him to the sarcophagus."

"No!" Carter said abruptly. "You can't."

"Sam," Fraiser said, with an anxious look back at where the only sound remaining was the beeping of monitors, "this is putting too much stress on his body. Something with the regenerative abilities of the sarcophagus might be the only thing that can help him."

"' _Might_ ,' meaning that there's a chance he won't need it. The sarcophagus changes a person," she insisted. "It takes something away from you. From your..." She darted a glance at the rest of them and cleared her throat. "Your _kalach_."

Jack felt his eyebrows shoot up and try to crawl into his hairline.

"Soul," Daniel provided, dragging the word out into a question. He and Teal'c were both looking at Carter oddly, as well.

"Right, yes," Carter said, determinedly looking only at Fraiser. "It does...bad things to you. That's why the Tok'ra don't use it, Janet. It's one of the things that separate them from the System Lords. Get it?"

Fraiser's eyes widened fractionally, as if she heard something the rest of them didn't. "I see."

"Well, I don't," Jack said.

Carter turned to him now. "Sir, Colonel Maybourne has become physically dependent on the effects of the sarcophagus. We cannot let his addiction get any worse. Going by this timescale, he would need to use the sarcophagus at least once every, what, two or three days, even assuming that its effects won't be exacerbated by increased use."

"It would keep him alive," Fraiser said, though she looked like she was considering the warning pretty seriously. "We could wean him off..."

"Alive at what price?" Carter pressed. "And there's no weaning someone off from sarcophagus use, that much I know. It's all or nothing at this point. Daniel, you've met Colonel Maybourne before. Was he acting yesterday the way he did before he was revived by the sarcophagus?"

Daniel glanced up once at Jack, then shook his head wordlessly.

"And it'll only get worse," she went on, "until we essentially have the human equivalent of a Goa'uld on our hands. Janet, trust me--use whatever medical means needed to keep him alive, but the sarcophagus will only make things worse in the long run."

Jack often thought Carter and Fraiser spent time conspiring behind their backs--some woman military scientist bonding thing or whatever--and he was getting more convinced the longer they held their staring contest while the rest of them were left in the dark. What was that about the Tok'ra, again, and since when had Carter started talking in Goa'uld and needing Daniel, of all people, to fill in the English equivalent?

But Fraiser finally nodded in agreement. "I'll talk to the doctors." She turned back around and disappeared again through the infirmary doors.

Jack found himself staring at Carter along with everyone else. "So, I'm confused," he said. "Anyone else confused?"

"O'Neill," Teal'c said. "We can do nothing further here. We must locate the Stargate."

"Never thought I'd hear that on Earth," Major Davis said, looking even more lost than Jack was. "I'm assuming there's no easy trick to doing that."

"If you want to get out of the corridor, there's a conference room you can use, sir," Reynolds offered. "Colonel Maybourne's the highest ranking official who might know anything, but I can ask around, see if anyone's noticed something wrong. Tobias, maybe; she works with the colonel a lot."

Jack eyed him for a moment, still not completely sure who was or wasn't in on this. It was Davis who agreed, "That would help, Major."

Reynolds left them in a conference room like the one they'd been in the evening before. "Carter, get on the phone to Hammond," Jack ordered. "See if he can help us out."

She nodded, moving to a corner to speak quietly, and Davis pulled out his phone at the same time. "I'll see if someone in Washington has any information about this."

"No," Jack said immediately. "Who was in charge of the Antarctica Stargate, Davis? The NID. And who's in charge of the NID?"

"Colonel O'Neill," Davis protested, "you can't be suggesting that someone in the highest military command in this country could be involved."

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to do this," Jack said. "There's a fake Stargate and DHD, and the real ones just vanished into thin air. Someone with clout has got a hand in this."

"Yes, sir, this is Captain Carter," Carter was saying into her phone.

"How do you know it's not someone at Stargate Command?" Davis said, but he reluctantly put his phone away. "If anyone has the resources for an operation like this..."

"It's not. Carter's checked separately with three or four people, and they've confirmed that it's not us."

Davis looked between him and Carter, his expression becoming wary. "With all due respect, sir, I don't have any assurance of that."

"Yeah?" Jack snapped. "Well, I don't know if I trust you, either, Davis."

The major drew himself up. "I've cooperated with every request of the SGC so far. Moreover, I--and the people I work for--am based across the country from all of this. There are many people who have had greater contact with the Stargate program and the Stargates than we have."

"Are you accusing one of _us_ of stealing a Stargate, Major?" Jack asked.

Davis remained impassive. "I would never say that, sir."

"Come on, why would we even be here if we had anything to do with it? There's a fake 'gate down there that no one's noticed for who knows how long; if we'd been involved, we would've just met you at Colorado and left well enough alone!"

"Colonel," Carter said as she hung up, "he's right. We have no reason to believe Major Davis is involved."

"And he has no reason to believe we're involved," Jack added, watching the major until he nodded.

"No, sir, you're right, I don't," Davis conceded stiffly. "But we still have a problem."

"Yes, we do. Carter? What's the news?"

"General Hammond hasn't heard anything," Carter said, "but I wasn't really expecting him to have. He's been asking around discretely since I called him yesterday, and he'll keep looking now that we know it's a little more urgent."

"See if anyone's heard of a stolen Stargate?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"Mm," Daniel said thoughtfully. "That would be hard, wouldn't it?" When stares turned to him at the painful obviousness of the statement, he clarified, "Well, I mean, the Stargate is very..." He gestured widely with his hands."...big. They can't have taken it very far, right? Just physically, it can't be easy to move around, especially without being seen. It wouldn't possibly fit in a car, or an airplane."

"Well, actually, Daniel," Carter said, "there _are_ aircraft and other vehicles bigger than the ones you've seen--large enough to carry even something as big as a Stargate."

"Oh."

"But," Jack said, extracting his hands from his pockets as he realized, "not without being noticed by someone, somewhere, if you dig deep enough."

Carter turned to him, looking cautiously hopeful. "Could it be that simple? Figure out if something large enough to carry a Stargate has made a stop here recently?"

"Large enough and classified enough," Jack added.

"That's assuming it's not here anymore," Davis pointed out. "It could have simply been moved somewhere else in the facility."

"I don't think so, sir," Carter said. "I think we can assume now that our suspicions were correct, and that the healing device was brought back to Earth through use of the Antarctica Stargate. It couldn't have been used here without catching the wrong people's attention. Or the _right_ people, as the case may be."

The door opened, and Reynolds returned. "I'm sorry, sir; I talked to the head scientists who worked on the Stargate and DHD, and no one's saying anything."

"Because they don't know, or because they won't say?" Jack asked.

"I don't think they're lying, sir, if that's what you're asking."

"Of course," Jack muttered.

"Lieutenant Tobias is away on business for Colonel Maybourne," Reynolds added, grimacing. "Can't be reached at the moment."

"That's not fishy at all," he answered in resignation, thinking he wouldn't be surprised by much of anything anymore. "Then we'll have to hope Hammond can pick something up."

XXXXX

**_11 December 1998; Area 51; 1500 hrs_ **

"They took it to Utah?" Carter asked when they heard the news. "Really?"

"Two _months_ ago?" Daniel added.

"That's what General Hammond said," Jack said. "Or that's what it looks like, anyway. There was a top secret requisition for a C-5, and it went from here to Utah two months ago. There's not a lot that's so secret Hammond wouldn't be able to get to the source of it, and the C-5 is a big plane."

"It fits," Carter agreed.

"Wh--but," Daniel said. "I mean, no one noticed for _two months_?"

Reynolds shook his head when they turned to him. "Don't ask me. Like I said, it's been packed away since before I transferred here."

Teal'c shifted impatiently. "For what reason do we remain here when we know the location of the Stargate?"

"Someone will notice if we fly off unscheduled from here and head for Utah," Jack grumbled, repeating Hammond's orders. "And since this facility is where this...fake Stargate crap all started, we'd rather not raise any more eyebrows than we need to."

"But someone else is going covertly, right? From the SGC?" Daniel clarified.

"Makepeace volunteered. He's leading SG-3 there right now."

"And General Hammond said it's not a military operation?" Major Davis clarified.

"Not according to his sources, it's not," Jack said. "And you know what isn't a military organization?"

"The NID," Teal'c filled in.

"Nice coincidence, wouldn't you say?"

"Sir," Reynolds said, "I'm not questioning General Hammond's word, but there has to be something more going on. I know for a fact that the people here are loyal to Earth and to the interests of the SGC."

"Everyone here?" Jack said. "You know _for a fact_ what every single person's allegiances are?"

Davis stood before Reynolds could answer. "I need to let someone know about this, now that it looks like a rogue operation."

"There are obviously still influential people involved," Jack said. "I'm talking people who have enough power to get a fake Stargate made and have the real one hauled away to Utah in an Air Force plane without anyone in the Air Force knowing about it, not to mention stonewalling General Hammond when he's trying to get through to the President."

"Which means someone doesn't want the President to know," Davis pointed out. "Colonel, unless you think the President himself or the Joint Chiefs are part of a conspiracy, I have to tell them."

Wouldn't that be a pain in the butt. But if the President wanted to start using the second 'gate, he wouldn't have to do it behind anyone's back, and Hammond wouldn't have found himself cut off from the man, so Jack conceded, "Maybe you're right. Go ahead, Davis, but make sure they're aware that this looks like something that goes pretty high up."

Reynolds followed Davis out. "I should see what Colonel Maybourne's condition is."

Once the four of them were alone in the conference room, Daniel pointed out, "About what Major Reynolds said, that people here were loyal to Earth and the SGC...Colonel Maybourne said the same thing, too, last year, but he was still hiding something."

"He didn't say that, exactly," Carter said. "From what I heard, he said he was loyal to Earth; he didn't say anything about the SGC. In fact, I think it's clear where he stands with regard to that."

"One kind of implies the other, Carter," Jack said, "considering the SGC represents Earth in the galactic neighborhood."

"To _us_ , it does, and to people on other planets. But there might be others here who have similar goals and disagree on the methods."

"What, well-meaning rebels?" he said sardonically.

"Yes, sir," she answered seriously. "Exactly that. Not everyone here, I'm sure, but maybe some people think the best way to defend our planet is to collect technology, like the healing device, with or without authorization. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there's a lot more technology, in fact, that we've simply never seen or heard about."

"But why would they have sent us information about the healing device at all?" Daniel said. "They had to know it would catch someone's attention at the SGC."

"Careless," Carter suggested. "Someone made a mistake."

"Hell of a thing to be careless about when you're running an illegal operation," Jack commented.

"Unless...the person wasn't thinking clearly at the time," Daniel said, raising his eyebrows.

"The sarcophagus," Carter said, on the same page. "I know we don't have concrete evidence yet, but one name does keep surfacing. Colonel Maybourne probably hasn't been...well, himself for quite some time now. It's been several months since he was first revived."

Jack nodded, dropping into a seat around the conference table. "Unfortunately, how much do you want to bet we won't be finding many more obvious breadcrumbs that lead to Maybourne?"

"I would not accept such a wager, O'Neill," Teal'c said in agreement.

"Jack," Daniel said, sounding uncomfortable, "we don't even know if Colonel Maybourne is okay."

"Yeah, well," Jack said, "if he pulls through...it'll still be a while before he's anywhere near 'okay' again. Speaking of the sarcophagus...Carter? You have something to tell the class?" When she hesitated, he prompted, "Sudden knowledge of Goa'uld words? _'The Tok'ra don't use the sarcophagus?'_ Ring a bell?"

"Well, recently...I've been having some dreams," she said uncomfortably.

"Dreams?"

"They're almost like...visions, I suppose."

"Visions," Jack repeated, dumbfounded. "What, like ESP?"

"Like memories, sir."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "About the Tok'ra. Sam, are you talking about Jolinar?"

"Yes," Carter said, sounding relieved that someone got it.

Jack turned on the two people in the room who, more than anyone, were supposed to be the logical, rational ones with fully functioning brains. "You both..." He stopped. "Visions."

"Sha'uri retained memories from Amaunet's mind even when Amaunet was suppressed," Daniel said, looking for all the world like he thought it would be kind of cool to have a vision. "That's what you mean, right, Sam, that you're seeing Jolinar's memories?"

Carter glanced at Jack and confirmed, "I think so. Janet thinks it's possible."

Teal'c seemed more interested now. "Do you then possess knowledge of the Goa'uld resistance, Captain Carter?"

"Not exactly. I get...flashes of memory sometimes, in my dreams, or when I'm looking at something familiar, but it's just bits and pieces. Most of it isn't very clear at all, but I had a very clear impression earlier today that the Tok'ra associate the sarcophagus with evil." She shrugged. "That's all it was, sir."

Jack squinted at the table. When it didn't answer his questions, he asked her, "And you didn't think to mention these visions earlier?"

"There didn't seem to be anything to mention earlier, sir, and I did tell Janet Fraiser."

"But not us."

"I didn't know they were real," she said defensively. "Janet thought they were some...just...dreams. Reactions to the"--she moved her hand toward the back of her neck--"experience. It seemed like a personal issue at first, so it was something I only discussed with my friend and doctor."

"Knowledge about Goa'uld technology seemed like a personal issue, Carter?"

Sounding like she was trying not to grit her teeth, she answered, "Like I said, sir, even after I figured out that they were from Jolinar, they're intermittent memories. Some of them have been of an unclear and...personal nature. Today was the first time anything relevant has come out of it."

"Ah," Jack said, still not quite understanding but thinking that he might want to back off. He tried to think about what was personal to a Goa'uld and what it would feel like to have that popping up in his head, but he couldn't quite manage it and probably didn't want to know, anyway. A _snake_. "I guess...okay, then."

"I wasn't really sure until today," she went on, "when I kept thinking the word ' _kalach_ ' without being able to remember what it meant. From now on, I'll make sure I tell you or the general anything useful that I remember, sir."

Jack opened his mouth, then shut it when he had nothing to say, because this was pretty weird, even for them. "Okay," he finally said again. "You do that."

It only took a few minutes of silence before Daniel spoke up. "Jack, we're going back tomorrow afternoon, right?"

"Barring more unexpected discoveries, yeah. Why?" Daniel glanced at the backpack he was carrying around. "Daniel," Jack said, exasperated. "There's a Stargate missing."

"Well, I'm not going to be any help finding it," Daniel pointed out.

"Neither am I, not from here," Carter said, adding hopefully, "They've been testing the maximal explosive potential of minute amounts of naquadah in combination of various other elements common to Earth, after what we learned about potassium thanks to Cassandra."

"Oh, well, if they're blowing things up," Jack said, looking askance at them both.

"We can do little from our current location," Teal'c pointed out. "It will be some time before Colonel Makepeace and his team arrive at the site to apprehend the criminals."

Jack scowled at him. _Et tu, Teal'c?_

"Fine," he conceded. "Teal'c, go with Carter. Daniel--" Actually, Daniel was probably heading back to talk to the translators, while Carter was going to watch some explosions, so... "On second thought, I'll go with Carter; Teal'c can go with Daniel. SG-3 should report back to Hammond as soon as they're done, so meet back here in two hours."

"Oh, Jack, but... _two hours_?"

"Yes, Daniel," Jack said firmly. "We have priorities. I'm not kidding, Teal'c, you drag him back here by the scruff of his neck if he stalls."

"I will do no such thing, O'Neill," Teal'c said as Daniel's hand covered the back of his neck protectively.

Jack sighed. "1800," he repeated. "No later. That's an order."

XXXXX

**_11 December 1998; Area 51; 1800 hrs_ **

The naquadah experiments turned out to be a series of computer models with lists of numbers that represented explosions. Carter had been excited. Jack couldn't help but think he should have followed Daniel to look at the unidentified artifacts. Apparently, the things there were so exciting that he and Teal'c didn't get back to the conference room until nearly a quarter hour after Jack and Carter.

Jack was watching his phone and waiting for it to ring when the other two walked in and Daniel asked immediately, "Sam, did you know they have a Goa'uld long-range communication device here?" He cupped his hand to show he meant the hand-held version.

Carter nodded. "That'll be the one we picked up on Abydos, yeah. They're trying to get one to work without needing naquadah in the blood and make it stay within a more secure network."

"They said they haven't been able to, so far," he said, his intonation making it a question.

"Yeah," she answered. "You probably remember that the one we found was damaged. Apparently, there were some key components they weren't able to analyze. I don't think it could be a security risk if it doesn't work, so I haven't bothered to ask for it back."

"The Goa'uld possess certain similar technologies that can be used by humans and Jaffa as well as the Goa'uld," Teal'c said.

"I'd love to have one of those, but unfortunately, we have to make do with adjusting what we have," she said. "We haven't gotten our hands on one of the ones that don't require naquadah. Those communication devices don't exactly grow on trees out there in the galaxy."

"That is correct, Captain Carter," Teal'c agreed. "They are, in fact, made by Goa'uld engineers."

The phone rang, and Jack's attention was diverted to General Hammond.

_"I have news about the Stargate,"_ Hammond started, _"and you're not going to like it, Jack."_

Jack sighed. "Why doesn't that surprise me," he said, then settled in to listen.

By the time he hung up with the general, everyone else's eyes were fixed on him, too. He shook his head. "No cigar."

"It wasn't there?" Carter asked, alarmed.

"Oh, the Stargate was there, and so was the DHD. They're both being shipped back to the SGC where Hammond can have them sealed up for good and keep an eye on them himself. But we didn't get the people who've been using them."

"Do we know who they were, sir, or where they went?"

"No," Jack said. "SG-3 got there while the 'gate was being used, but whoever they were, they left through the Stargate. Makepeace tried to see the address they dialed on the DHD, but by the time he got there, it was too late to catch sight of the symbols. He has no idea where they escaped to."

"And no monitoring equipment was left behind? No records or...or artifacts of any kind?"

"Nothing, not even transport trucks. And you know what that means."

Carter nodded. "They weren't operating out of there, except for the Stargate," she explained when Daniel looked confused. "Whatever technology they've picked up might have been stored off-world, even. They were probably just agents for whoever's really running the show, and we have no idea who, or where."

"Oh, I'll bet _someone_ has an idea," Jack said darkly, "and, conveniently, he'll be medically incompetent for questioning for who knows how long."

"Jack," Daniel said, annoyed, "why do you keep-- It's not like Colonel Maybourne wanted this. He couldn't have known what the sarcophagus would do to him."

Annoyed as well, Jack replied, "Why have _you_ been defending him? It was a stupid thing to do, and I thought you didn't like the guy."

"I'm not defending him! I just don't think it's right to accuse him of something when we don't have proof that he did anything wrong, and he can't defend himself. Especially when Janet thought he might be _dying_."

"I'm just saying," Jack said. "What kind of idiot climbs into an Goa'uld healing box over and over when he's perfectly healthy?"

There was a pause, and he could tell he'd made a mistake somewhere, because Daniel was staring at him with an expression that was a cross between angry and stricken, but had no idea what he'd said wrong. Carter and Teal'c were playing it safe with wary silence, so there was no help from that quarter. Then...

" _I_ considered it," Daniel muttered, almost but not quite defiant enough to hide more than a hint of embarrassment. "On Klorel's _hatak_ , after Master Bra'tac revived me."

That part, Jack hadn't known. Kind of wished he didn't, actually, because what he could imagine of what actually _had_ happened was bad enough. "But you didn't," Jack reminded him. And that was a very good thing, because Jack wasn't sure what he'd have said or done if it had been Daniel screaming at doctors and strapped to a bed before passing out in the infirmary with half his organs shutting down.

Holy crap--he'd been tempted, Jack realized with a chill, when they'd seen the sarcophagus the day before. Daniel hadn't been interested in the symbols carved into the box; he'd been thinking about _crawling in._

"Why?" Jack asked. Getting hooked on medication when the body was still in the process of healing--that, he could understand, if not exactly forgive, and you were supposed to stop afterward, you _fought_ what it was doing to your body. Being completely healthy and diving in for another dose, on the other hand... He would never understand the draw of having alien-- _alien_ , for crying out loud--technology screwing with his body more than he needed. Screwing with his _head_ , going by what Carter thought it was doing to Maybourne.

Daniel reddened slightly and crossed his arms. "It's supposed to heal. There was no reason to think it would do something else. And it feels...like...a good thing. Colonel Maybourne didn't know what the sarcophagus would do to him, and it's not like he had a choice the first time he was put in."

"He had a choice the second time," Jack said. "And the time after that."

"I just think we should wait until he's better before we start casting aspersions. You can't condemn someone for not being mistrustful of everything; the sarcophagus doesn't seem like it would do anything bad."

"I'll bet it doesn't," Jack muttered, remembering a briefly giddy Daniel following that experience. "Anything that good has got to have a downside."

"What? No, it doesn't," Daniel said, sounding honestly bewildered by the remark. "There's no reason to believe the worst of everything."

"Ah--sarcophagus?"

"That's just _one_ example! Why isn't it possible that there's something with only good consequences?"

Jack had the odd feeling that they weren't talking about the sarcophagus anymore. "Because things like that don't happen."

"You mean _you_ haven't seen something like that happen," Daniel said.

"Because--! Look, the better something is, the more you have to think about what its flipside might be." The better something seemed, the easier it was to be lulled into thinking it was fine, and that it couldn't possibly hurt, and so, hey, why shouldn't we just jump in headfirst again and again, right?

"You won't even admit the possibility that there might be _something_ in the universe you haven't experienced that might be totally--"

" _No_ , Daniel, I'm not going to think like that! Because that's the difference between 'careful' or 'killed' out there."

"What about a being made of energy who saves us from an army of Jaffa trying to kill us?" Daniel said in a low voice. "If you had been anymore more 'careful' about Oma Desala, you might have been both careful _and_ killed."

Hello. Left field.

"Whoa. Whoa, what?" Jack said, completely blindsided, wondering where that had come from and just how long Daniel had been stopping himself from saying it. Weeks, apparently. "Are you talking about the Oma Desala who was willing to fry all of us if we didn't do what she wanted? The one who made you think--" He stopped himself before something he'd really regret. If Daniel heard Shifu's unspoken name anyway--and of course he'd heard it; how could he not?--he didn't say anything. "Where did _that_ come from, anyway?"

Daniel held his gaze but deflated slightly. "Never mind."

"Never mind?" If Daniel had a problem with the decisions Jack had made on that trip...well, he'd picked a great time to start picking at it. "Daniel, what the hell?"

"Never _mind_!"

Carter cut in, sounding as if she were trying to stave off something that might turn louder and uglier when they really didn't need any more problems while they were here. "Anything is possible, even if it's outside our range of experience," she offered pragmatically, almost anxiously, "but, in a way, nothing _is_ completely without negative consequences, because what counts as good or bad inherently depends on the point of view."

"Exactly," Jack said, even though he knew that wasn't what they were arguing about at all. There was a reason he hated these philosophical debate games. Philosophy was fine in a book; in real life, it just turned everything inside out until it didn't resemble reality anymore.

Sure enough, Daniel shook his head, glowering. "That's not the _point_."

"Then what _is_ your point?"

"I don't know, Jack."

"If this is about Oma Desala--"

"It's not...just...it's not that."

"Daniel--"

"I. Don't. _Know_ , all right?"

Jack threw up his hands. "Would you just tell me what's going on?"

This time, Daniel slumped into a chair with a dejected sigh, pulling off his glasses, and Jack believed him when he repeated quietly, "I don't know."

The door opened, cutting him off. Dr. Fraiser entered, asking, "Am I interrupting something, sir?" Carter looked between them warily but was back to silent mode.

"Nope," Jack said, tearing his gaze away to look at the doctor. "Found the second Stargate, lost the people using it."

"All...all right," she said, looking surprised for a moment before continuing. "I just thought you'd want to know that Colonel Maybourne will make it, in all probability, although he'll need continuing medical care following this. How long it'll take him to get through the withdrawal, and whether he'll come out of it the same, is another matter. His position here will be reassigned to someone else until he's deemed fit to return to the job."

"If he's ever deemed fit," Jack pointed out.

"Jack..." Daniel started.

"Yes, sir," Fraiser agreed. " _If_ he ever is."

Daniel shut up.

"We're going to need to--" Jack started.

"And there'll be no one trying to question him until then," she added.

Jack shut up, too.

"Did you find out anything else about what they were doing with the sarcophagus?" Carter asked.

"Exactly what they said they were doing," Fraiser said, shaking her head, "although testing it obviously wasn't as simple as they thought. Apparently, there were complications when Colonel Maybourne was first revived after Hathor, because his body was, essentially, still looking for the symbiote that had been keeping him alive over the previous day or two."

Carter was nodding thoughtfully. "He'd already started to undergo the genetic mutations that would cause him to be able to support a larval Goa'uld."

"That's what it looks like. DNA analysis shows that he's back to normal, but their data also show that it took a few tries to get there. By the time he was completely healed, the beginnings of a powerful addiction were probably already there. In the beginning, the doctors may have mistaken that for persistent problems due to the mutations, but afterward...well, the colonel was in charge of research on the sarcophagus, and there are plenty of people here who are very loyal to him."

"We should make sure it stays somewhere secure," Jack said. "No access, period, except in the case of death. Or permanent injury."

"I agree," Fraiser said. "I'll recommend that we ask SGC personnel their preferences on sarcophagus use in those circumstances. There are still questions of possible further abuse of the sarcophagus, by either us or them. To resolve that, perhaps we could keep it locked up here at Area 51, but with access granted only by the commanding officer of the SGC."

"That's probably a good idea," Carter said.

And then it was awkward and quiet again.

"Hammond says we can stick around until tomorrow," Jack said finally. "Everyone go talk to the researchers, like we've been planning on doing from the start. But after that, we're going back home." He was getting sick of this place.

Daniel gave him one more glance. For a moment, Jack thought he was about to speak, but then he stood and followed Fraiser out of the room instead before Jack could catch up to him.


	17. Winter Solstice

**_22 December 1998; P8A-462; 1100 hrs_ **

A shadow fell over Daniel's book, and he shifted his flashlight to illuminate his notes better. The shadow cleared its throat, and he squinted upward to see Major Ferretti towering over him where he knelt. "Time's up, and it's getting dark," Ferretti said. "We need to head back."

Daniel checked his watch. "Already? I think I could finish this with another few hours, Major."

"This planet's been abandoned for years. No people to meet, so unless the secret to the universe is on that wall, we're due back home in half an hour."

"The secret to the universe might be on it," Daniel pointed out, "but I won't know it unless I finish translating it."

Ferretti shook his head and held out a hand to help him up. "You tell that to the general, Jackson. See what he says."

Sighing, Daniel slid his notes into his pack and accepted Ferretti's hand to pull himself to his feet.

The Stargate was a little over twenty minutes away from the cave they'd found. "Need help with that?" Ferretti asked, nodding at his pack.

"I can handle it." Teal'c had filled a bag with rocks and made him climb the ladder from the 28th to the 11th sublevel, once, for training. Jack had looked horrified, so after that, Teal'c just made him run with weighted packs instead of climbing up shafts with no safety net. Sam had been sympathetic but pointed out that he'd have to pass the physical aptitude and stamina assessment eventually for fulltime off-world status. Daniel had pointed out in return that Jaffa ideas of stamina weren't the same as SERE's. Teal'c had threatened him with more rocks until he stopped complaining.

Ferretti shrugged, then asked, "Any plans for Christmas? Or do you celebrate?"

"Not really," Daniel said in answer to both. "But Robert's worked through Chanukah for the last two years, so he's taking a vacation to stay with his sister for a week. I was considering staying on base to cover for him while he was gone..."

"Aw, seriously?"

" _But_ he told me I didn't have to." Daniel rolled his eyes. Robert didn't even celebrate most of the holidays he'd grown up with; Daniel didn't know what he was supposed to do on a forced vacation during a holiday that he'd only experienced once before. It wasn't as if he could as easily board an airplane and see his own sister.

The thought stole his breath for a second before he shook it out of his head, stumbling on a twig to hide how his step had faltered. "I suppose I'll see what SG-1 is doing," he finished casually.

"All right," Ferretti said. He glanced sideways at Daniel, started to say something, then seemed to change his mind and added, "You know, if they're on a mission or something then, my wife's family's coming over; an extra guest won't hurt. Or you can ask one of these clowns," he added as they approached the Stargate, where the rest of SG-2 was looking bored as they stood guard. "Base'll be pretty quiet around the holidays."

"Oh, I, uh..." Daniel fumbled, self-conscious, not sure if he was imagining the pity in the words from the man who had been there with him--both times--on Abydos. But he suspected that the base wouldn't be much more quiet during Christmas than it was on a regular night-shift, and it wasn't like he minded having the whole base more or less to himself. "Thank you," he said honestly, even though he knew he wouldn't pursue the offer.

"Well," Warren said, clapping Ferretti on the shoulder as they packed their equipment. "It was good serving with you boys."

"You're leaving?" Daniel asked in surprise.

"They need an extra man on SG-3," Warren told him.

"'Bout time," Ferretti said in mock relief. "Go join the other jarheads; too many majors around here, anyway. Now no one'll think he can argue with me just 'cause he's the same rank."

"I'll still argue with you, sir," Casey reassured him.

"Shut up and start dialing, Captain."

"Yeah, about the rest of you guys," Griff added, nodding at Casey and Ferretti. "SG-10 and -12 need some experience on them. I've heard your names come up a couple of times. Am I crazy, or has anyone else heard about that?"

"I have, just in passing," Daniel said. He'd also heard that another major, Coburn, was to take over as leader of one of the more experienced teams as part of the regular shuffling of personnel that helped to keep skills spread evenly. He'd dismissed it as just another rumor at the time, or as something that didn't affect him, but if Warren said he was leaving, and Ferretti and Casey might be as well, then perhaps there was more truth to it than he'd thought.

"Well, they're not gonna take the whole team apart, not this one," Casey said as he hit the third glyph. When Ferretti didn't answer, he looked back and asked, "Are they, sir?"

Ferretti shrugged and said, "Who knows. People get reassigned all the time. It's just rumor until the general tells us otherwise, Captain. The job doesn't change just 'cause your patch says a different number."

Once the wormhole was established, Daniel waited for one of them to lead the way back, but when no one moved, he asked, "Um, are we waiting for something?"

"Griff?" Ferretti said. "Something wrong with your GDO?"

"I don't know, sir," Griff answered, staring at the device on his wrist. "My IDC's not getting a resp...wait. It's been accepted, but I'm getting an alert code, too."

"Jackson, switch on the MALP transmitter," Ferretti ordered as SG-2 swung their weapons around to grip more firmly. "Take cover until we know what's up."

"It's on," Daniel said when he had complied and moved out of their way.

Ferretti leaned over the camera and called, "Stargate Command, this is SG-2. We're receiving an alert; what's your status?"

" _Major Ferretti, this is General Hammond,"_ came the familiar voice. _"The Mountain is currently under quarantine. Are you in danger where you are?"_

They exchanged worried glances. "No, sir, we're fine. What's going on?"

" _SG-3 returned carrying what looks like a contagious virus. The 'gate room is currently being decontaminated. Until we're done, we don't want to dial out, in case the microbes can be sent through an outgoing wormhole, and we don't any personnel coming back, in case the situation here worsens."_

"Quarantine," Warren muttered, off to the side. "Jesus. Again?"

"Is anyone seriously ill, sir?" said Ferretti. "And is it curable?"

" _Only a few people seem to be affected. It seems to die off on its own, but it takes a few days to run its course once someone is infected. SG-3 says that the same thing happened all the time to inhabitants on the planet they were just on with little to no danger of fatality. The symptoms have been mild, so Dr. Fraiser's not worried, but until we're sure, I don't want it getting out of the Mountain or to risk anyone else getting sick."_

"That's good to hear, sir," Ferretti said. "Any idea when we'll be able to go back?"

" _Dr. Fraiser thinks it'll be at least another week, but check in with us every day. We'll keep you updated. We're preparing some supplies now that will last you the time you're gone, and once we're done with decontamination, we'll send them through."_

"A week," Casey muttered, dropping to sit on the steps that led up to the Stargate. "Damn."

"Is there some way our families can be informed that we'll be stuck at work?" Ferretti asked.

" _Of course, Major. Standard protocols for extended mission time are in effect. If you have any messages you'd like to send through the wormhole, I will pass them on personally."_

Ferretti grimaced unhappily but said, "Thank you, sir. Is there anything we can do from here?"

" _Actually,"_ General Hammond said, _"if you could relay the message to the other off-world teams before they try to return as well, it would help."_

"Not a problem, sir. Jackson, get this down," Ferretti added to them, and Daniel pulled his notebook back out, digging in his pocket for a pen. "Go ahead, General."

" _SG-1 is on leave with Teal'c's family in the Land of Light--do you need the coordinates?"_

"No, sir, I know the address," Daniel called in the direction of the MALP transmitter as he scribbled _'SG-1, 797'_ onto his notepad.

" _SG-7 is on P2J-651. The address is: Virgo, Andromeda, Centaurus, Monoceros, Sculptor, Sextans."_

"Sculptor...Sextans," Daniel murmured, jotting down the glyphs. "Okay. And SG-6?"

"What about the Abydos mining team, sir?" Ferretti asked the general.

" _They had just come back to Earth when this started, so we have them here. We just need to tell SG-1 and -7."_

"Got it, sir," Ferretti said to the general. "We'll let them know."

" _I appreciate that, Major,"_ General Hammond replied with a sigh. _"I'm sorry for this mess, especially at this time of year, but we'll let you know as soon as it's safe to come back. Hammond out."_

The wormhole disengaged.

"Well, this sucks," Ferretti said succinctly.

Warren snorted in disgust. "We couldn't even pick an exciting planet to get stuck on for the holidays. Nothing to do, no people to talk to...just us and an empty planet."

"Can I go back to finish with the cave wall, then?" Daniel asked, wincing when a few glares found him. "Since we're stuck here, I mean."

"Yeah, sure, why the hell not," Ferretti sighed. "Not like we've got anything better to do. But first, we need to tell SG-1 and -7 about the quarantine. Jackson, dial up the Land of Light. Everyone else, start setting up camp."

XXXXX

**_22 December 1998; P8A-462; 1500 hrs_ **

"You're done? Really?" Ferretti asked when night had fallen over the cave and Daniel started to pack up.

"Yes. I told you I only needed a few more hours."

"I thought you were just trying to get me to let you stay longer. Anything about the meaning of life?"

"No."

"What did I tell you?"

"It could have been," Daniel said with a sigh, even though he'd known all along it was more likely to be simply the end of a long recital about the virtues of the god Thanatos. Well, his name was--or had been--Thanos, according to the writing, but he was supposed to have been 'born of the dark and the night,' so it was likely that he was the same as the Thanatos of Tau'ri myth. Daniel had been looking mostly at Ancient, Goa'uld, and Egyptian texts recently--once they'd established that he was good at making headway on those, those seemed to be almost exclusively the only ones that landed on his desk. It was refreshing to read something related to Greek mythology for once.

"Anything interesting?" Ferretti asked, not sounding interested so much as bored after watching Daniel copy down the writing over the last hours.

"I'm not sure, actually," he said, panning the camera carefully across the wall once more, just in case he'd missed something that they saw later, back on base. "There was a Goa'uld here named Thanos, but he moved all the people to another planet thousands of years ago. Something about going to a planet with more plentiful mineral resources, because this one was insufficient."

"Mineral resources...meaning naquadah."

"They don't call it that, by name, but I think so. It says Thanos tried to change it to make it better. I think he was experimenting with it; apparently, he tested...the changed mineral on another planet, but 'the people of that world failed him.' And that's why he came to this world and possibly went to others as well."

"'The people failed him' translates to 'he screwed up and killed them?'" Ferretti guessed.

Daniel shook his head. "Maybe. The details are vague, and I have no idea what he actually did."

"But it wasn't here, because there's no naquadah here to speak of."

"No, not here, although this account is interesting, since Thanatos, as a god of death, was sometimes linked to other deities associated with the underworld, including Pluto in the Roman pantheon in a few uncommon sources, and he was also a patron of rare metals. Like naquadah, perhaps. It's a stretch, but..." He shrugged.

Ferretti blinked at him. "But not _here_ ," he repeated tolerantly.

"No."

"Does it say where?"

"No."

"Is there a reason we're still sitting in this cave, then?"

Daniel looked over the wall once more to make certain that he hadn't missed anything, then packed away the camera and stood up. "I guess not."

On their way back to the rest of the team, Daniel asked, "General Hammond wouldn't really take everyone off SG-2, would he? You're one of the teams that get most of the...more intense missions. Most of time," he amended when Ferretti snorted and threw a pointed look back at the cave that seemed to be the only interesting feature on this planet. "If any team needs experienced personnel, this one does."

"Warren's transfer is already confirmed," Ferretti said. "Me and Casey, I haven't heard anything official. Hell, you're on base all the time; you've probably heard more than I have. Griff'll stay, I'm guessing, even if the rest of us don't."

"He's still just one person--your junior member," Daniel said. "I don't count," he added when Ferretti grinned at him, "and technically, we both had our first mission with you at the same time."

"If that happens, SG-2 might be running support missions instead of first-contact until everyone's got a little experience under his belt." Ferretti waggled his eyebrows playfully. "Why? You gonna miss us?"

_Yes_ , Daniel found himself thinking with a little surprise. He didn't know these men like he did Robert and everyone on SG-1, and it wasn't as if they were leaving the program entirely; still, SG-2 had been _his team_ more than any other thus far. They worked together easily, and the thought of its ending brought an unexpected bit of melancholy.

That wasn't how SG officers were accustomed to answering such questions, though, and anything but bravado would only bring more teasing--and the perception, however joking, that he wasn't ready for responsibility--so Daniel only shrugged. "It's not like I won't see everyone around base. I'm just wondering."

"You're not the only one. Well, nothing's going to happen until they lift this damn quarantine. So much for plans for the holidays."

"Maybe it'll end in time," Daniel offered.

"Nah, with a disease, they're going to want to be sure. We'll be lucky to make it back before New Year's. Least we're not all Neanderthals this time."

"We weren't actually Neanderthals after the P3X-797 mission, either; it was just--"

"Jackson..."

"Yeah, I know--'shut up.'"

There was a pile of supplies waiting for them when they arrived. "From the SGC, sir," Warren said. "Dr. Rothman sent along a present for you, Jackson."

Daniel followed his flashlight to an ancient world history book and a pile of folders.

"Looks like homework to me," Griff said, smirking from where he was setting up a tent.

"I think it is," Daniel replied ruefully, peeling off a note on top with the words _'Happy winter solstice, geek'_ scrawled hurriedly on it. He sifted through the papers to find that they were a mix of unfinished translations, samples of practice text from ancient Earth languages he was still learning, and copies of articles from an archaeology journal.

Ferretti watched him look through the small pile. "I don't know about you boys, but when I was in high school, I didn't have to learn about...what's that article say? 'Cultural cross-pollination through Naqada I: a review of the evidence.' Jesus," he laughed. "Don't envy you, Daniel. Dr. Rothman's a harsh taskmaster."

"I bet he's bored and just sitting there thinking up things to do, since he's going to be stuck on base now," Daniel explained, picking up the article and squinting at it.

The corresponding author was listed as Jackson, M., and a quick glance at the rest of them revealed the same or Ballard, C.L., several with them both as co-authors. One was even by Ballard, N.S., from _Ancient Mesoamerica_ \--something about skulls carved out of crystal, with a note scribbled in the margin that said, ' _This one is a little special; some of the sections are more solid than others_. _Write up a summary, and include your own analysis of the conclusions drawn._ '

Maybe it _was_ a Christmas present after all. Well, partly, anyway--the history book was definitely an unsubtle hint to keep studying, and the translations were part of a backlog of work they had all been struggling with lately.

"At least you've got something to do until we can go back," Ferretti said. "There is _nothing_ to do here. This place doesn't even have trees. What kind of planet doesn't even have a goddamn tree? No wonder everyone abandoned it."

"They have shrubs," Griff offered, indicating the height of low bushes with his hand.

"What the hell were you planning to do with trees, Ferretti?" Warren asked.

"No one happened to bring a deck of cards, did they?" Casey added. "Or a football to toss around? Anything?"

"Is that another sport?" Daniel asked.

"You don't know what football is?" Ferretti said, somewhere between incredulous and horrified. "There is no way you live with O'Neill without knowing what football is."

Between Shifu and the...and after Kheb, it had in fact been months since Daniel had stayed at Jack's house for more than a day at a time, and most days, it felt like they were tiptoeing warily around each other. But while SG-2 might be his sometimes-team, they weren't the whatever-Teal'c-or-Sam-were; he wasn't about to talk to Ferretti about...well, that. Whatever _that_ was.

"I might not have been paying attention if he explained it," Daniel admitted. A thought struck him. "But the quarantine is just for travel to and from Earth, right? We can go other places?"

"Maybe," Ferretti said, sounding wary. "Why?"

"When we called the Land of Light just now, didn't Jack say he was trying to teach Teal'c's son to play baseball?"

"We could join them," Casey picked up. "More company, at least."

"I'd go for that," Griff said. "Better'n sitting around here."

Ferretti hesitated, then decided, "Wait until the morning check-in and see what General Hammond says."

XXXXX

**_24 December 1998; Land of Light (P3X-797); 2000 hrs_ **

General Hammond was happy to let them join SG-1, especially since it meant there were fewer off-world groups for him to keep track of.

The people of the Land of Light remembered what it had been like to live with an infectious disease, and they were sympathetic as well as welcoming of anyone seeking refuge from one. SG-1 had a room off the temple where they could sleep. SG-2 was shown to another one, and Teal'c was staying with his wife and son, so Daniel joined Jack and Sam in their less-crowded quarters, each of them claiming a separate corner of the room.

"What're you looking at?" Sam asked, glancing at her watch. Nighttime was something of an odd concept here. Sam had tried to explain why the Light side of the planet stayed light and the Dark side dark, but Daniel had given up trying to follow after the second time it didn't make sense. In any case, the skies here darkened only slightly with 'days' spanning just under twenty-eight hours. The dimming set the sleep cycle for most of the inhabitants, but there seemed to be plenty of people awake no matter what part of the cycle it was.

"I'm looking at the bulls," Daniel said, pointing at the fresco he was admiring. "The bull was present in a lot of Minoan art. People on Earth started calling them the 'Minoans,' after the myth of King Minos, because the Minotaur's labyrinth was supposed to be in that region, did you know that?"

She made an absent sound and rearranged her already-tidy bedroll. Drey'auc had offered to let Sam stay with her, since the other SGC personnel were all men, but Sam had been much more uncomfortable about kicking Teal'c out of Drey'auc's house than she was about sleeping with coworkers like she often did in the field, anyway.

"Is everything okay?" Daniel asked, watching her unnecessary fussing.

"Oh, I was just wondering if it's snowing back home."

"It will probably be snowing for weeks after we get back," Daniel pointed out. "There was snow for a long time, last year."

"Yeah, I know," she said. "It's easy to forget that it's winter back home when it's all...grass and sunshine out there." She waved toward the doorway, where Daniel knew Jack was probably still in the clearing, trying to show Rya'c that the point was to throw the baseball accurately, not just hard enough to injure. Jaffa began to grow into their strength after their _prim'ta_ ceremony, and Jack was in turns encouraging and wary around Rya'c when the boy was holding a projectile.

It was easy to forget that, while everyone Daniel knew on Earth was within a few minutes' walk or a Stargate call away, the others had families and had made plans that they were missing because of the quarantine. Robert was probably glowering at some hapless artifact on base because he couldn't get to his sister in Chicago, Ferretti had a wife and children, and Sam...

"General Hammond said he'd call everyone's families to let them know what's happening," Daniel said. If they were friends, General Hammond must know how to reach General Carter, even if Sam hadn't asked him to do it. Even though Sam probably _hadn't_ , out of some sense of pride or propriety or some such. "So...if you were planning on seeing your father or something, he knows you're stuck at work. I'm sure he'd understand."

She looked quickly at him. "Yeah," she said again. "No, we hadn't made plans or anything. It's funny--I was actually thinking about my brother."

There was a dull thud of pain in his chest. Daniel pushed it away. This conversation was about _Sam's_ brother, whom she'd mentioned before, he remembered, but it had been over a year ago and never again after that. "Your brother?" he said in question.

"Yeah. Older brother." Sam smiled down at her hands. "Mark. He's got a couple of kids, too. Haven't spoken to him and the family in...well, years, since his youngest was just a baby."

"That's so odd," Daniel said, moving away from the fresco and fetching his own bedroll, somewhat less neatly folded than Sam's had been.

"What is?"

"Not speaking with a brother for years. No, it's just," he amended when she stiffened, "it's different in Nagada. There are a few thousand people there, but close enough together that we see everyone all the time. It must be hard to stay in close contact in America. I mean, when you changed jobs to join the Stargate program, you traveled farther in a few hours than I ever have on Abydos in my whole life. I can't imagine it."

He couldn't quite decipher what the look on her face meant. "Maybe," she said at last, and Daniel remembered belatedly that it should be easy in America on Earth, with long-distance communication technology like telephones, and that if she hadn't spoken to her brother in a while, it had been by conscious choice on someone's part. "Anyway. I called him a while back but he wasn't home, so... I'm just thinking."

Daniel sat with his back to the bulls in the fresco. "I miss my brother, too," he admitted quietly, not sure whether he meant Skaara or Shifu, but the ache sharpened and widened until he couldn't meet Sam's eyes. He reminded himself that he'd survived losing Skaara once, and Sha'uri and his parents, and that surely the events of the last few months would sink into him and settle into his bones, too, and it would be just a part of life. Everyone here had lost someone, and he was older now and had seen more. Soon his breath would stop catching in his throat every time he thought of his kin. It _had_ to. He regretted speaking at all when he saw her expression soften into apology out of the corner of his eye.

"I miss Chulak," Rya'c's voice said from behind them, and Daniel turned, wondering how he had failed to hear Jack walk in with three Jaffa in tow.

"As do I, my son," Drey'auc said, a hand on Rya'c's shoulder.

Jack opened his mouth, and Daniel almost expected him to add something to the list, because he certainly had a few he could have added, but he only said, "You are one depressing lot of people. Come on, poker game--I promised I'd teach Teal'c. I don't have any chips, but I brought the cards."

"You brought playing cards off-world, sir?" Sam asked.

"The chess board didn't fit in my pocket," Jack said seriously.

It took a bit of extra effort to answer Jack's unspoken command to be cheerful. Rya'c was there, Daniel told himself, and Rya'c was a young boy who had been driven from his home. "I think I'll watch," he said lightly, holding up the papers Robert had sent through. "Or read."

"Come on," Jack wheedled. "The more the merrier."

"I'll join in if it gets boring," he promised, knowing it would be pointless to try to win a game based on bluffing if Teal'c was playing. He was fairly certain Teal'c's stony expression would frustrate Jack enough that 'boring' wouldn't be a problem.

XXXXX

He looked up when Jack, disgruntled, threw down another hand. "Okay," Jack said, "next time we get some personal time, we're going fishing."

Daniel bit his lip but didn't look up from what he was reading. Then, Teal'c commented, "I am not familiar with that recreational activity," so Daniel widened his eyes at the Jaffa and shook his head as discretely as he could while Jack wasn't looking.

Too late, apparently, because Jack said firmly, "Then I'll have to take you next chance we get, T. There's this beautiful lake in Minnesota...Daniel, you and Carter can come along, if you can manage to leave your offices for more than a few hours at a time." He said the last casually, but with a sharp glance at Daniel.

"Not a fan of fishing, Daniel?" Sam said with a traitorous smile. Daniel scowled at her.

"What's not to like?" Jack said indignantly.

"I didn't say anything," Daniel said.

"What do you do in Tau'ri fishing?" Rya'c asked.

"You dip a string into the water and wait for a fish to try to eat it," Daniel explained. "Basically, it's a way to catch fish."

"And you do this for entertainment?" Drey'auc asked doubtfully.

"That's...not...Daniel, that's not all it is," Jack said, sounding appalled. "It's an art. It's...it's a philosophy. It's much more than what he made it sound like. And it's not about catching fish."

"No, it's really not," Daniel said under his breath. _Kelno'reem_ was more exciting than fishing in a lake with no fish in it.

Jack gave him a look. "At least I'm not sitting over there muttering to myself in Greek."

"It's not Greek," Daniel said. "It's Mandarin."

"Ah," Jack said sarcastically. "That makes more sense. And since when do you speak Chinese?"

"I don't, really--I'm just getting a feel for the sound structure. All the translators try to learn bits of other languages when we can. And languages like Chinese have roots stretching far back in Earth's history, so there are likely parallels on other planets. We do that with unfamiliar ancient languages, too. We can't account for phonetic drift, or even know the way some of these languages sounded on Earth, but any point of reference can be useful if we hear them off-world."

Jack snorted. "He thinks _fishing_ is boring," he told Rya'c, who pretended he hadn't just been sneaking a look at Jack's newly dealt hand.

"We did not use strings to trap the fish on Chulak," Rya'c said, craning his neck up to see Jack's face. "We used bowls and networks of ropes."

"Abydons use nets, as well," Daniel added. "It's much more efficient."

Jack shook his head in despair.

"Do you concede defeat, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, still focused intently on his cards.

"No," Jack said defensively. Rya'c snickered. "Yeah, I guess," he amended and threw down that hand, too.

When Rya'c eventually started to yawn, Teal'c lay down his cards as well, saying, "Perhaps we should retire."

"Good night," Sam said as the three Jaffa stood to leave, then peeked out at the still-shining sun outside. "Well, not... _night_ , but...you know."

"Indeed, Captain Carter," Teal'c said, smiling at her. She smiled back, and Daniel thought maybe she had another brother, even if he wasn't named Carter. Then Teal'c turned his smile onto Daniel as well, and even as he returned it, he remembered with a sharp pang that no friend or teacher or brother-in-arms, however close, could replace another. And the English 'brother' or 'sister' were terms that were at once too much and not enough. Skaara and Sha'uri would never understand what he had been through in the last year and he would never understand what they had been through; Jack and Sam and Teal'c would never be the people who had raised him and grown up beside him. Having another family didn't lessen the loss of a first. Sometimes Daniel wondered if he was destined to keep finding them only to lose them again and again.

When the Jaffa were at the doorway, Drey'auc paused, nodding to her family to go on. Teal'c looked reluctant, but Rya'c tugged at his arm, pointing at something, and he acquiesced.

When Teal'c had led Rya'c away, Drey'auc turned back to say, "I hear that there are other planets now on which the Jaffa are no longer loyal to the Goa'uld."

Daniel put down the paper in his hands to listen to what they would say. Jack exchanged a glance with Sam, who said, "There are two that we know of with rebel factions and possibly others we haven't heard about yet."

Drey'auc nodded. "I am grateful for your help in sending my son and me to this planet. The people here have been kind. But I would like my son to grow among our own people."

"Ah...yeah," Jack said. "But it's pretty dangerous out there. The rebel camps are always prime targets, and just being tied to Teal'c's name is a risk. Apophis is looking for you and Rya'c, you know, to get to Teal'c."

"I understand. Teal'c has warned me of the danger, as well."

"And he's okay with it?"

Drey'auc drew herself up tall. "Teal'c is my husband. He is not my sovereign."

"I know that," Jack said. "But you've gotta think of your son's safety, too."

"Rya'c is the last in a long line of First Primes. Bra'tac has already begun my son's training, and it will not be long before Rya'c starts to wonder why we remain here while a war rages around us. It is for him that I ask this."

Jack looked at her for a long moment, as if weighing her words. "Does Bra'tac come here a lot?"

"More frequently than Teal'c," she answered. Daniel tried not to wince. He could guess how Teal'c felt about that.

"We could give you the names of the planets, but the best thing would be to talk to Bra'tac. He knows the situation on those planets better than we do. But I'd advise staying away from Chulak. It's pretty volatile there, and even Bra'tac doesn't dare to go back yet."

Drey'auc looked as if she wanted to press harder for information, then finally nodded. "As he has been teaching my son, it would be best for him to say when Rya'c is ready to see the face of the uprising. I will ask him when next he returns. Good night, Tau'ri."

Jack looked thoughtful when only he, Sam, and Daniel remained in the room, but he quickly gathered the poker cards and shuffled them idly, seemingly without any intention of redistributing them. Sam watched uncertainly, then finally said, "So. It looks like Drey'auc and Rya'c might be moving on sometime soon."

"Teal'c won't be happy," Daniel commented.

"Well, I get that the Jaffa society is primarily dominated by men, Daniel," Sam said, "but she's right that the two of them should decide for themselves if they want to live with their own people."

"Ah, that's not the point, Carter," Jack said, abandoning the cards and stretching. "You heard her. She's more likely to listen to Bra'tac's advice than Teal'c's."

"I don't see Teal'c being resentful of Bra'tac," she countered. "And you have to admit--Bra'tac's been around a lot more than he has. I'm not saying that's Teal'c's fault, exactly, but..."

" _That's_ the point, Sam," Daniel said. "Usually, the _chal'ti_ training falls to either the father or the First Prime, and Teal'c is both but doesn't have that choice with Rya'c. It's not about Master Bra'tac; it's about not being able to see his son much."

"And the danger thing, obviously," Jack added. "That doesn't help."

Sam grimaced. "I know. But I don't think he's going to be able to stop them."

Jack dragged his bedroll against a wall. "You're probably right, Captain. That's why I told her to ask Bra'tac--at least he'll have an idea of what passes for safe these days. Just remind me not to practice boxing with Teal'c in the next few months."

Daniel snorted, but he agreed silently and wondered if he could avoid training sessions with Teal'c by getting assigned to some team--maybe SG-2, since they'd be short a man without Major Warren--the next few times they went out until Teal'c was convinced his wife and son were relatively safely settled somewhere. And then that made him think of what Griff had mentioned about rumors, so he asked, "Have you heard about the SG-2 reassignments?"

"You mean Major Warren?" Sam said, settling against another wall. "SG-5, wasn't it? or -3?"

"SG-3," Daniel said. "But people have been talking about putting more men on SG-10 and -12; they haven't gone out on a mission since the planet search for the Nasyans, and I saw that they just got put onto the bottom of the exploration rotation now, so..."

"Hank Boyd is going to lead -10, at least for now," Jack told him. "But they _are_ all new and could use a medic with off-world experience, so I think Casey'll get tapped to join them. Ferretti could get command of -12."

" _All_ of SG-2 is getting reassigned, except Captain Griff?"

"It happens," Jack said. "You just haven't seen it much, because SG-1 and -2 haven't been rearranged since we first started."

That was true. Daniel didn't understand how the general decided which teams to keep whole, fostering closeness and intimate understanding among the members, and which to rearrange often, allowing for fresh input and redistribution of experience. SG-1 was the only exception so far: they had gained enough of a reputation off-world--individually and as a team--that the three of them together made enough of an impact that it was well worth keep them together. "What about Robert and me? Do we still take training missions with both of you?"

"You guys've been in pretty high demand with the research and diplomatic teams," Jack said, "so I'm not sure how valid it is to say you're training with just Units 1 and 2 anymore. And...I see you haven't heard about Dr. Rothman's assignment."

"What?" Daniel closed his book, rising on his knees and leaning forward. "Where? Or... _what_?"

"SG-11. Not for a few months, I'd say, but once they're finished picking everyone out and the military portion of the team gets used to each other, he'll probably join them as their permanent archaeologist."

"I...can't believe he didn't tell me," Daniel said, unsure whether to feel hurt or annoyed.

Jack shrugged. "He might not even know yet. But SG-11's going to be an archaeological team now, and he's been looking to go out on more research missions, so the general will probably ask him to join them."

Daniel held up a finger. "Wait, wait, but...SG-11 is mostly an engineering team, running second-line support..." He saw Sam grimace out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned back to Jack, the man's expression had become stiff and hard. A little nervously, he added, "Right?"

"They were on P89-534," Sam said. "And they're overdue to return to base."

"How long overdue?"

"Going on a month now," Jack said quietly. "It's one of Apophis's planets. They've been declared missing in action."

Daniel sat back down. "Oh."

He tried to remember when he'd last seen Captain Conner around base, or if he remembered hearing about P89-534. And then he remembered that SG-3 had been sent there, and he hadn't paid much attention because they had come back empty-handed, with Colonel Makepeace angry and snappish for days afterward. Now he realized they must have been the search-and-rescue team, and the fact that they'd come back with nothing--and no one--was enough to know what had happened.

"Oh," he said again, more quietly.

Ferretti appeared at the door, grinning. "Hey, which one of you has been telling Teal'c's kid about Christmas?"

"Um," Daniel said, slowly redirecting his attention. "I didn't really... Why?"

The laugh that followed seemed out of place after just realizing that a team of men was missing, probably forever, but Ferretti, unaware of the conversation he had interrupted, didn't pause. "Should've known it'd be you, Daniel," he teased, already heading away, toward the clearing where Daniel and Rya'c had both pretended yesterday not to understand the rules of baseball, just to annoy Jack. "C'mon, before Tuplo starts getting nervous."

"Nervous about what?" Sam asked, sounding wary and coming to her feet.

"The tree," Ferretti called back, not slowing.

"You didn't," Jack said to Daniel.

"What?" Daniel said, honestly bewildered. "I didn't do anything."

"I'm sure," he answered, standing and starting after Ferretti. "Who's coming?"

"I haven't seen many fir trees around here," Sam mused as she and Daniel followed.

When they arrived at the clearing, SG-2 was cheering something on. Daniel had to peer around them to see Teal'c standing before a...well. It wasn't a fir tree, anyway--Daniel knew that much. Rya'c stood on Teal'c's shoulders in what seemed a very precarious way. "Um..." Daniel said, flicking a glance at Drey'auc, who looked somewhere between amused and alarmed. "Are you sure that's...uh...not dangerous?"

"I am ensuring Rya'c's safety, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said without turning, his strong hands gripping his son's legs.

"Almost there, father," Rya'c said, straining to rise higher on his toes. Daniel looked up to where Rya'c was stretching his arm as high as it would go, just in time to see him hang Jack's baseball cap on the highest bough he could reach.

SG-2 cheered loudly as Jack reached up to his head, as if only then realizing his cap wasn't there anymore.

"Daniel," Jack said, eying the tree, the lower branches studded unevenly with makeshift ornaments of flat stones and trinkets strung with strips of cloth--one hung by a shoelace, and Daniel caught sight of Casey cursing good-naturedly as he checked his left boot--"just what have you been telling him about Christmas trees?"

"Nothing," Daniel protested, then amended, "Well, I didn't say anything about hats."

"I couldn't find a pentagram," Rya'c said as Teal'c set him back down. "But I wanted to put something on top."

"I think it's beautiful, Rya'c," Sam told him, though her face was red and Daniel suspected she was trying not to laugh.

"I almost put the baseball glove on top," Rya'c told Jack seriously, holding up the mitt, "but then I wouldn't be able to play baseball. It is my favorite game."

Something flitted across Jack's face, and he took the mitt to place it on Rya'c's head. "Well, there you go. It's my favorite, too," he said, even though Daniel had seen him watch sports at home on the television, but never baseball and very _specifically_ never baseball. Rya'c peered up at him from under the glove-turned-hat until Drey'auc took it off and smoothed his hair.

Daniel heard an artificial-sounding click next to him, and he turned to see Sam lowering her digital camera. "Hey, Captain, give me a copy of that when we get home, will you?" Ferretti said. "You can't tell it's not from Earth."

"It's very likely that this exact species of tree doesn't exist on Earth," Sam warned.

"The _rest_ of us can't tell, anyway. Be nice to have something not utterly classified for once."

Technically, they weren't allowed to keep off-world photos for personal purposes, even photographs of trees decorated with rocks, but no one ever complained about innocuous photos tacked to office walls. "Yeah," Sam said. "I was going to show it to Cassandra, actually. Poor girl--her first Christmas with us, and Janet and I can't go see her. I'll bet Janet's going crazy."

Daniel felt his smile freeze.

"Yeah, how's the kid doing?" someone asked. "My daughter was such a handful at that age, you can't imagine."

"Oh, I can imagine, sir," Sam said fervently, grinning fondly. "I'm just grateful I never had to deal with her as an infant. But it still _is_ an alien planet for her, and I just didn't want her to be scared or lonely. You know what it's like, Daniel, right? Holidays and all."

"Right," Daniel heard himself say. He listened to the rest of them laugh and trade stories about children and family traditions and holidays, and he wondered how scared Skaara and Sha'uri were on their own alien planets, whether Shifu was old enough to understand fear of where he was. He wondered if they even knew people were looking for them, or if they'd stopped hoping that they would ever be found and saved.

He had a sudden, irrational thought that, if he closed his eyes and stood still and quiet enough, they would all appear, because the winter solstice was a time of rebirth and renewal of light and new beginnings, and...

Daniel opened his eyes. Sha'uri was still gone, Shifu had been taken somewhere else, Skaara was nowhere to be found, they were stuck off-world, and now something was squeezing his lungs so hard that he couldn't breathe.

He backed away unsteadily and slipped out of the clearing while Jack was assuring Sam that he was sure Cassie would be fine.

XXXXX

Jack was the first one to make his way back to their quarters, his steps deliberately audible instead of the silent way he walked when he chose to. "Whatcha reading?" he asked casually. Daniel almost said, ' _déjà vu_ ,' because Jack said that to him all the time, but he didn't want to put in the extra effort needed for sarcasm.

"Just an article," Daniel said, not looking up. He refocused on the paper in his hands, only to realize he hadn't really been reading it and had no idea what it was about. He wasn't about to admit that so easily, though, so he added, "From the _Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_."

"What's it about?"

"Egyptian archaeology, Jack."

"Yeah, got that. What _about_ it?"

Giving up, he sighed and let the article flutter to the floor. "Something. Probably."

"Now," Jack said, " _that_ is what happens when you read too much. Your brain turns into mush."

"The brain is pretty mush-like to begin with. Some funeral rituals involve the--"

"Aht!" Jack gave him a disgusted look. "Thanks. Don't need the image."

Daniel considered picking the paper back up and actually reading it seriously this time, because he really had no idea what it was about, and he _had_ come in here originally with every intention of reading it. Instead, he asked, "Is everyone still there? With the...uh, the tree."

Jack shrugged. "Drey'auc's trying to convince Rya'c to go to bed."

"Good luck," Daniel said, thinking of how loudly alert Shifu often became-- _had_ become--whenever anyone tried to make him sleep. Then he very pointedly stopped thinking about it, because it wasn't the same thing at all, _yi shay_ , not when Rya'c was almost thirteen years old by Chulak's calendar while Shifu had only been born four Earth months and a week ago.

"That's what _I_ said," Jack said, looking as if he were remembering how it felt, too, but not because of Shifu. "Anyway, like I told Carter, I didn't bring your Christmas presents."

Daniel gave him a look. "You didn't _have_ Christmas presents for us," he said with a fair degree of confidence. There was no way he'd had time for that.

Jack looked startled, then chagrined. "Yeah, that's what Carter said."

He pushed up his glasses, only to find he wasn't wearing them. Maybe that was why he hadn't been able to read the article. Jack noticed but didn't say anything. "Could you sit down?" he said to cover for the lack of anything else to say. "So I don't have to keep looking up at you."

"So," Jack said, lowering himself to the floor.

"So," Daniel parroted.

"You know..."

"What?"

Jack hesitated, then said, awkward and blunt, "Are you...okay? After everything with Shifu?"

Daniel felt his shoulders stiffen.

"I know you miss him. And it's, you know...it's okay. Normal."

Bending his legs, Daniel leaned back against the wall. "It's not like I've ever had a conversation with him. It's not like I know him. _Knew_ him. I--we only had him for a couple of months."

"He's your little brother," Jack said mildly. "You spent practically every minute of those months with him."

"I don't even know what kind of person he is; I mean, how can I possibly miss a person if I never even really knew anything about...about his personality, or what he--"

"He's your _brother_ , Daniel."

Daniel swallowed and looked down. "For a few hours, on Kheb, I thought...I don't know."

"Yeah." Jack fiddled restlessly with a canteen, not like he was trying to take a drink, really, but just unscrewing the cap and closing it again, over and over. "You said it yourself," he said finally, "that he's safe now."

"That's not _enough_ ," Daniel said, and he was surprised it hear himself say it, to realize that it hadn't been just about Shifu; it had been selfish, and about himself, too. "I wanted to _keep_ him, which is ridiculous." He pulled his knees to himself and held on. "I thought if I could protect him, it would mean I could keep him, too. How stupid is... I can't take care of a baby! I wouldn't know where to start; I don't even really _want_ to. I can't imagine why I would have thought that."

When he looked up again, Jack was staring at him, his hands completely still now. "Daniel."

"And, uh." He coughed and dropped his eyes to escape the _pity-confusion-hurt_ in Jack's face. "And Sha'uri would have whipped me herself if I kept her son from safety just because I wanted to--"

"Ah," Jack interrupted.

"'Ah?'" Daniel repeated. " _Ah_ , what?"

"I know what you're thinking."

"So what am I thinking?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

Daniel sighed, thumping his head lightly against the wall. "I don't want to play right now, Jack."

"I'm not...trying to turn this into a game," Jack said.

"You don't understand," he said without knowing why he was saying it, because it wasn't like Daniel understood, either, so in all honesty, it was quite possible that Jack understood better than he did.

Jack visibly bit back a sharp retort and said, "Well, then, you'll have to help me out here."

He chewed on his lip, for once not attempting to drown the last few days--weeks--in piles of work. He thought carefully over what he'd done and what had happened and what the consequences were and would be. "If we find Sha'uri again--"

"When," Jack corrected without pausing to think.

"When we find her," Daniel amended, grateful for that confidence, "she will want to know what happened to her son. She never said exactly what she wanted us to do with him, and everyone kept saying that it might not have been her instructions, since Amaunet was there the whole time, and I don't think it was a trick, Jack, I really don't. But what if I misunderstood something...something Sha'uri said, or maybe something about the temple at Kheb, and when she finds out what I did--"

"You did the right thing," Jack said.

Relief burst within him so suddenly that it was a few moments before he could speak again. "Are you sure?" In the short pause that followed, he knew it wasn't a fair question, because now Jack had to decide between what he really thought and what he thought Daniel wanted to hear. "You don't have to answer that, Jack."

"Well, I'm sure," Jack said. Daniel looked up sharply, but Jack's eyes told what his face and tone didn't, and there was no lie there.

He blew out a slow breath. "Okay."

"Yeah? Okay?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "You were right. At Kheb. I was...so wrong. I shouldn't have just...accepted everything so easily."

"Ah...look," Jack said. "My job is to be paranoid. That's not your job. You...look for possibilities. That's how it works."

"I just thought it would..." Daniel started, then huffed. "You know, Sam was afraid from the start I would get attached."

"She can be pretty dumb about some things for someone so smart," Jack said.

"Maybe she was right."

"That's not what I meant. Carter's never had a kid of her own to take care of. Anyone could've warned you, but it wouldn't've changed anything."

He almost answered that he could have listened to Sam when she'd told him not to get too close, listened to Janet when she'd assured him that the medical staff would take over complete care of the baby if he wanted to have some space, listened to Teal'c when he'd said that he worried about what it meant to be the human child of two Goa'uld. He could have _listened_ , like the guardian of at the temple of Kheb had tried to tell him again and again, but the trees in their arrogance had ignored the wind as it whispered wisdom to them.

But if he had known all along that he wouldn't be able to keep Shifu--that they couldn't even bring him back to Abydos, where Daniel could visit him sometimes--wasn't it all the more important that he'd spent as much time with his little brother as possible?

"Good point," Jack said gruffly, making Daniel realize that he'd said the last part aloud.

And then he felt worse, because it must be much harder for Jack than it was for him--Jack knew what it was to lose his son, after years of being with him and growing close. It wasn't the same with Shifu. Daniel had barely known Shifu at all, and he might not be lost at all, not completely, not the way Charlie was. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

He shook his head. Jack didn't press him, so he dropped his chin onto his knees to watch the never-ending daylight outside. "Jack?"

Jack had picked up one of Daniel's textbooks and didn't even seem to notice that his hands were idly flipping the cover open and shut, each flip accompanied by a soft _whoosh_ of wind that rustled the pages. "Daniel?"

Daniel took a breath and said to the floor, "What do you think about Oma Desala?" The rustling stopped. "And you don't have to...I mean, what do you _really_ think about her?"

"Is this why you've been working so hard on Ancient recently?" Jack asked.

He shrugged one shoulder. "Kheb's address was from the Ancient database. The writing on the walls from the temple...I thought, for a minute, that it looked like Ancient, but now I'm not so sure, because I haven't found anything like it since. If she was really Mother Nature, someone must have encountered her as the being Oma Desala, right, and there would be records?"

Jack folded his hands behind his head and leaned back against the wall. "May...be."

"And...maybe not?" Daniel heard in the unspoken words.

"And maybe not. Who knows."

"Do you...think we'll ever see them..." He stopped and cleared his throat. "You think we'll see her and Shifu again?"

Wrinkling his nose, Jack shifted in his place, so Daniel knew he was hesitating, trying to find a kind way to phrase whatever he was thinking. "I think," he said finally, carefully, "it's out of our hands now. I think if Oma Desala wants us to see them again, she'll find a way to make it happen."

Daniel nodded in acceptance, sighing.

"Stop sighing."

"Jack."

"It's Christmas, Daniel. You can't keep... Just stop thinking for once. For one day, huh? Like that thing with the..." Jack jerked a thumb toward the clearing where they'd just been. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"A _pentagram_? You told Rya'c we put pentagrams on top of our trees?"

Daniel suppressed another sigh, because he knew what Jack was doing, knew it was a clumsy attempt to make him stop dwelling on things they couldn't change. When he didn't answer at first, Jack started to look something between uncertain and discouraged, so he finally played along and said, "I've seen pictures of Christmas trees with five-pointed polygons on top as symbolic representations of stars. I drew one, and Rya'c asked, and I told him it was called a pentagram."

"It's not a pentagram," Jack said.

"Actually, sir," Sam said as she walked in, pulling a curtain to block sunlight that would otherwise keep them awake the whole not-really-night, "technically, it is, in its simplest form, if you draw it the right way."

"It's a star, Carter."

"That's only a symbolic representation of a star," Daniel repeated. "It makes much more sense to call it a pentagram if it's drawn with five lines."

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Because the word 'pentagram' means 'five lines.'"

Jack sighed.

"Don't sigh, Jack."

"Go to bed, Daniel."

Sam laughed.

"You too, Carter. Don't make me make that an order."

"Yes, sir. Merry Christmas to you, too."

Daniel crawled into his bedroll and spent the first minutes listening to them breathe around him.

For a moment, it almost felt like nighttime on Abydos, with people sleeping nearby on their pallets, knowing he was surrounded by people who would protect, if needed, but never, ever hurt. Then he saw Jack's eyes still open and watching him from his corner, and Daniel turned away to stare at the wall. Still thinking about their conversation, he felt his arms try to curl around someone who wasn't there--Shifu, perhaps, or his mother or his protector big brother--and he hugged his knees to his chest instead. When his vision began to blur, he squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his blanket over his head.

He woke again some indeterminate amount of time later, his sleeve damp where his cheek had pressed into it. Sam had moved away from her corner at some point, and her feet were now close enough to be touching the bottom of his bedroll. Jack was closer, too, close enough to touch if he reached out enough, and still awake, still watching him, still guarding. Daniel met his gaze.

"Go back to sleep," Jack said.

Instead of quieting, Daniel blurted in a whisper, "It's been over a year."

Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "You mean...since..."

Daniel pulled himself out of his blankets and shuffled over to sit shoulder to shoulder, so they could talk without waking Sam. "Since everything. It feels like...so _long_ , and..."

"And like just yesterday," Jack finished, because he knew without having to hear it.

Daniel nodded and almost wished it was cold like it would be back in Colorado, just for an excuse to inch closer for warmth. Jack pressed a solid shoulder against his, anyway. "I don't usually think about...about all of that all the time anymore."

"Well, you can't."

"It's gotten better. But--" Daniel stopped.

"But," Jack agreed. He took a breath and ventured, awkwardly, "You've been kind of...down. Recently." Daniel couldn't move. He wasn't sure if he was embarrassed to be having this conversation with Jack or relieved, so he didn't answer. "You've gotta...stop thinking sometimes."

"It's just, after Kheb, I kept...I can't _stop_ thinking about it, and thinking maybe I could've done something different. If I'd been faster on Klorel's _hatak_ , or not as...as indecisive when we found Sha'uri on Abydos, or even the first time you came to Abydos, if we'd been more prepared, and--"

"Daniel," Jack said softly. "No. Don't. Don't do that."

"Jack, how do you..." he started. He didn't finish.

_Over a year since Abydos. A month since Kheb_. It had been much longer since Jack had lost his son, lost friends in combat, lost over and over. Something prickled behind his eyes at the overwhelming thought that, one day, it would be that long for Daniel, too.

Jack was silent for a long time, and Daniel started to think he might have overstepped one boundary too many. "I learned to forget," Jack said at last. "Sometimes."

"I don't want to forget," he whispered.

"I know. Trust me. You won't." A hand brushed gently over his head. "Go to sleep, Daniel."

Daniel bit his lip, nodded, but didn't move immediately. He looked across the room and saw that Sam's eyes were open, too, snapping shut when she saw him see her. With another nod, he levered himself away from the wall and slipped back under his blankets. He stared at the bulls rearing fiercely in the fresco on the wall until he fell asleep, thinking, _Taurus, Tauri, Tau'ri_.


	18. Hosts, Part I

**_26 January 1999; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

Daniel was waiting outside Jack's office when Jack walked into work that morning. Not reading or even looking bored, he stood waiting with his coffee, warming his hands around the commissary-issue disposable cup. His foot was tapping slightly, jittery in the way of someone who was running on caffeine, which was strange enough on its own, because Daniel didn't like coffee enough (yet, though at this rate, he might be heading there) to drink that much of the stuff unless he was exhausted and no one was there to make him go to sleep. Alarms went off in Jack's head.

"Hello," Jack said, his eyes flicking to the end of the hall as if that would tell him what was wrong. "Back from the planet, I see. I didn't think SG-7 was getting back until today, or I would've waited for you."

"I got back with them really late last night," Daniel said, draining the cup in his hand.

"How was the trip?"

A shrug. "A lot of textual data--Ancient. Still no living Ancients. As we expected."

"Good." When nothing further seemed forthcoming, he asked, "What're you doing here?"

"Sam came to the archaeology office to ask something last night," Daniel said immediately, like he'd been waiting to say it for a while. He started walking, clearly expecting Jack to go along with him. "Jack, we're supposed to meet them." With no clue what was going on, Jack was forced to follow him and hope there was more explanation coming.

Jack took a minute to wonder when this had happened, but considering that Daniel had apparently gotten back from a planet with SG-7 late at night, not to mention the coffee thing, he had probably been up for a while with 'gate-lag. Besides, Carter pulled all-nighters more often than most people pulled mission rotation, so... "What were you two doing in the archaeology office in the middle of the night, instead of sleeping like normal people?"

"Sam had fallen asleep at her desk"--which did _not_ count as sleeping like a normal person--"and had a dream. She thinks it was something important."

"A dream?" Why was it that when Jack wanted Daniel to say things concisely, he wouldn't shut up, but it was like pulling teeth whenever something interesting was happening? "I'm going to need a little more than that, Daniel."

"What? Oh, um...she wanted to know if the word ' _lantash_ ' meant anything in Goa'uld, because it was in her dream. It's not something I've ever seen or heard, but she's sure it was a real memory from Jolinar. She went to Janet to ask to be monitored while she slept to see if there was a difference in...something, brainwaves, I don't know...and to see if she could remember the rest of the memory, and she just woke up about"--he leaned abruptly into an office as they passed to check a startled Major Coburn's clock--"twenty minutes ago."

"Whoa, whoa," Jack said, holding out an arm to stop Daniel. "What?"

Daniel backpedaled and huffed impatiently. "Jack, I just _told_ you--"

"Just...Okay, wait. Carter had another _vision_? About the rebel Goa'uld?"

"I suppose so; I don't know what it was about. That's what I was supposed to bring you to the briefing room to find out."

"We need to teach you how to give a report in logical order." Jack took up the lead toward the briefing room. "Someone could've just called me there as soon as I got in."

Daniel shrugged. "Like I said, Sam just woke up. She wanted a few minutes. We figured you would get here soon, anyway, and it would be easier if I explained it on the way so she didn't have to go through the whole thing all over again."

All things considered, Jack was almost surprised to see Carter so composed at the briefing room table. She was asking Teal'c something, while Hammond simply seemed to be waiting.

"General," Jack greeted as he walked in. "Everyone. I heard about the...dream thing."

Daniel hesitated at the staircase, but when the general nodded, he took a seat as well. He and Rothman had both started joining in at briefings that involved some relevant bit of culture or language, especially with explorations to new planets. Jack had to admit that it had come in handy in the past, which was probably why the general continued to let them except when they were stepping on another cultural specialist's toes.

"It wasn't just a dream, sir," Carter said, looking more tired now that he was close enough to see. "As I've stated before, it was a memory. I saw Jolinar--and the other Tok'ra--escaping from something or someone. I think they were under attack, and they were going to some other planet."

"And you believe that this was a real memory," Hammond said, as if to confirm.

"Yes, sir. I'm absolutely certain that it was."

Jack felt his eyebrows twitch upward. Confident as they had to be to make the kind of decisions they had to, 'absolutely certain' wasn't common, not for someone as careful as Carter was.

"But they're not your memories, Captain?" the general said.

"When a Goa'uld infests its host," Teal'c said, "their minds intermingle and become as one."

They hadn't known that at all from the start, back when all they knew was what Teal'c had been told, that a host was destroyed when a god took over its body, but they'd learned enough over the years to realize that wasn't true. "What about when you asked Daniel about that word?" Jack asked. "He said he's never heard of a...lanyard... What was it again?"

" _Lantash_ ," Teal'c supplied. "I also have not heard that word."

Carter hesitated, then shook her head helplessly. "I don't know what to tell you, sir. Everyone in the dream was speaking in Goa'uld." ( _Makes sense_ , Jack thought, _since they're Goa'ulds._ ) "It was as if...I understood what was happening, but when I woke up, I only remembered a few words, and they don't mean anything to me anymore."

"Then this could be something you dreamt up," Jack pointed out. When she gave him an indignant look, he amended, "Not on purpose, obviously. I'm not... But it could be...a dream. Things don't always make sense in dreams. That's all I'm saying."

"It... _sounds_ Goa'uld," Daniel offered. "It could be the name of a person or a place, even a codeword; we might not recognize that."

Feeling a little bit like a traitor to his teammate--but Goa'ulds and visions were two things he wasn't about to trust without good reason--Jack started to say, "If we don't have anything really solid to go on, maybe we have to consider--"

"It is possible, O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted. "According to Jaffa legend, the Tok'ra have many methods and technologies that the System Lords have never discovered, particularly those that concern their ability to conceal themselves. Perhaps this is one of those."

"And, sir...there's one way to find out whether or not it's a real memory," Carter said, sliding a notepad toward him. "I saw the address of their destination planet. With the number of possible permutations of Stargate glyphs, the probability that I would hallucinate a working address by random chance is negligible."

"So if we can get a lock, your dream is probably true," Jack summarized. "But even if it's totally valid...Carter, they're Goa'uld."

"But they call themselves the Tok'ra," Daniel said before she could. "Their very name says that they're against the System Lords."

"Supposedly," Hammond said.

"Supposedly, yes, sir, according to Jaffa legend, and according to what Jolinar said to me and Cassandra in the Academy hospital."

"Not just supposedly," Carter insisted. "Definitely. Trust me, sir. These are the good Goa'uld."

Hearing something like that about a Goa'uld made Jack want to shake someone until the loose screw fell out. He could kind of understand the others' enthusiasm for the idea. Teal'c was a realistic guy, but rebel Jaffa seemed to put a lot of stock in their ancient forbidden legends. Daniel didn't like Goa'uld who took hosts in general, but he still hadn't lost that thing where he thought anything against the Goa'uld System Lords was good on principle.

Carter, though...of all of them, she was uniquely qualified to judge the character of a Tok'ra. Jack still just wasn't completely sure whether she was uniquely the best- or worst-qualified.

As if she saw his uncertainty, Carter pressed, "The Stargate coordinates I saw are the only lead we have to find the Tok'ra. We should check it out before they move on, if they haven't already done so. Colonel, I know you're skeptical about these things, but I am confident that I am right on this one."

"Colonel?" Hammond asked. "If you agree, I'm ready to send SG-1 there."

Jack met Carter's earnest gaze and finally nodded. "It's worth checking out." She relaxed slightly and nodded thanks to him.

"Is, uh...anyone else going along?" Daniel asked, clearing meaning himself.

"No," Jack said immediately. "If these Goa'uld are as paranoid as Carter and Teal'c think they are, there's no guarantee that they won't engage us when we arrive." Jack wasn't going to guarantee that _he_ wouldn't shoot anyone, either.

"But what if you need a--"

"A translator who speaks Goa'uld? Or an ancient Egyptian dialect?"

Daniel glanced at Teal'c, then nodded in resignation. There was a reason Daniel wasn't often assigned to assist SG-1.

"Communication won't be a problem," Carter said confidently. Jack raised his eyebrows at her, and she shook her head again. "I don't know how I know, but I'm sure of it." Fair enough--most of the Goa'uld they'd met so far spoke some dialect or other of English, and any Tok'ra they met were likely to do the same.

Hammond nodded. "All right. This one will be for SG-1 alone. SG-3 will be ready to provide backup if you need it. Be ready to leave in an hour. You're dismissed."

As they stood and began to leave, Jack heard Hammond add to Daniel, "Mr. Jackson, the scientists would like an extra pair of eyes in the engineering lab on 22. Dr. Rothman left early yesterday after returning from his last mission with SG-2."

"Early?" Daniel said, sounding surprised. "That's odd." Jack remembered seeing Rothman leave the day before, before Daniel had returned himself, but only because the man had been quieter than usual. He thought Rothman was odd in general, though, so he hadn't asked any questions.

"Well, they're studying the device that SG-2 brought back along with Machello."

"With...whom?" Daniel said.

"Machello," the general repeated. "That's the name of the inhabitant they found on the planet. Someone will explain it to you upstairs."

"Yes, sir. Good luck with the Tok'ra," Daniel said to the rest of them, then disappeared in the direction of the elevator with a final wave.

"One hour, people," Jack repeated to his team when Hammond had left.

Fifty-five minutes later, Jack stood in the embarkation room with Teal'c, waiting for Carter to finish whatever last-minute thing she was doing. "So, Teal'c," he said, checking his watch and trying not to show his apprehension, "you got a good feeling about these Tok'ra guys?"

Teal'c gave him one of those long looks that no longer fazed him--much--and intoned, "My feelings are indeed excellent on this matter."

"Ah...right," Jack said, looking suspiciously at Teal'c. It was hard to tell when the Jaffa was actually mistaken about idioms and when he was just messing with them.

Jack was saved from thinking of the best way to correct the phrasing by Carter's entrance. "Thanks for waiting, sir."

"Just in time," he answered. "Everyone here? General," he called in the direction of control room, "we're ready."

XXXXX

**_26 January 1999; SGC, Earth; 1030 hrs_ **

Two hours later, Daniel started up the staircase to the briefing room. _"...Oh no,"_ he heard, and he hurried toward General Hammond's familiar drawl just in time to hear, _"I'll be right there, Jacob."_

"General?" Daniel asked as the man hung up the phone. "I was called down."

The general nodded. "It's about Machello. Report to the infirmary; Major Ferretti, Captain Griff, and Dr. Fraiser will explain what he's been telling us. I need to take care of something off-base."

Daniel blinked. "Okay." Whatever this was about, maybe it would be good--if Machello was going to be all right, maybe he could help them decipher that odd language Daniel couldn't quite make out on the tablet SG-2 had brought back.

Ferretti and Griff were the last two members left on SG-2, now that Warren had joined SG-3 and Casey SG-10. Robert had provided them their minimum third member for this trip, but Daniel suspected they would see some reorganization, and soon. When he arrived in the infirmary, both of them were waiting, and Janet was standing next to the elderly man in the bed--Machello--who was now awake.

"Hi," Daniel said. "What's going on?"

"Daniel," Machello croaked.

"...Hi," he said again, uncertainly.

"How did you know his name?" Ferretti asked the man sharply, making Daniel realize belatedly that he should have wondered that himself. "None of us mentioned it."

"As I've been trying to tell you," Machello replied, his words slow and labored, "I am not Machello. I am Robert Rothman."

"Uh," Daniel said. "You what?"

"I'm Robert," Machello insisted.

"You don't look like him," Daniel said warily, glancing at the others to make sure he wasn't the only one who found this strange. "Are you...uh, are you sure?"

Machello huffed exasperatedly, then coughed.

"He knows a lot about Dr. Rothman," Janet offered. "Private things in his medical record."

"Ask me anything," Machello said. "Ask me something only I would know."

Ferretti nodded at Daniel. "Figured you know him better than any of us, so..."

"Is this a joke?" Daniel asked, but no one seemed to be in the mood for laughing. "Okay. Um...where did you used to work? No, wait, how did I get to be your assistant?" he added, since others might easily know the first part. Not aliens, obviously, but...well. It was the principle.

"The Oriental Institute in Chicago," the old man said promptly, then paused, as if to catch his breath, before saying, "And you missed something in the translation of that wall from Abydos."

"No, I didn't," Daniel said automatically. "You agreed, too--it was right in that context. You didn't even know it was _from_ Abydos."

"Well, excuse me for not being an alien," Machello (Robert?) retorted irritably. "It was that... ' _netjer, natay_ ' thing."

Daniel opened his mouth to answer, only to remember that he was arguing with an old man, not Robert, except that, well, apparently it _was_ Robert, who only looked like an old man. "I take it that's correct?" Janet asked. "And there's no way anyone else could have known that?"

"Finally," Robert muttered through Machello's lips.

"Yes, it's correct," Daniel said, peering closer at the old man's face as if it might tell him something. "And no one else would have known that."

"Wait a minute," Griff said, holding up a hand. "You're telling me that... _that_ is Dr. Rothman?"

"When we touched the machine," Robert said, "it must have switched us somehow. Our minds or whatever."

"The machine?" Daniel asked.

"It was this thing we found on Machello's planet," Ferretti said. "You know that tablet we brought back? We think they're instructions or research notes about the devices on the planet."

"That makes sense--I can access various schematics on it. Is this...this is all possible, yes?"

Janet shook her head when they turned to her. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I've never dealt with something like this. I can consult with some neurologists, but I'm not sure they'll be able to help."

"Uh, hold on," Daniel added, not completely able to take his eyes away from Machello's face. "General Hammond said that Robert left early yesterday, and obviously, he's not here today. But if they were switched, and Robert's mind is in Machello's...body, then who left yesterday?"

"Damn," Janet swore uncharacteristically. "I should have known something was wrong when he barely said a word during his checkup. He must have picked up just enough of the language to pass." She sighed. "I thought he was just tired."

"We all should've paid more attention, Doc," Ferretti said. "But right now, where's the general?"

"He's...out," Janet said. "Personal matters. Colonel Makepeace is in command until he or Colonel O'Neill returns."

"We really need to get Dr. Rothman, or whoever got sent home last night."

"And find a way to switch us back," Robert said. "'Left early.' The heck would I do that?"

"About switching you back..." Daniel said, wincing.

Robert squinted one rheumy eye at him. "Daniel..."

"I've been working on the language that Machello used to record data. It's Greek or Latin in form, but I don't recognize the sentence structure, or anything else about its grammar. It's like a completely new language, or at least one that no one here has seen before, so if it's instructions...I have no idea what it says."

"Don't bother," Griff said dismissively. "Let's just go back to the planet, bring the switcher machine back, and get one of the scientists to put it in reverse. How hard could it be?"

"Perhaps I should go with you to see if there's anything there that I can actually read," Daniel said, with an apologetic look at Robert, who squinted at him and nodded slowly. "There must be more of the planet to explore than just that lab you found, anyway, so maybe someone else there could help us."

"Doc, you'll keep an eye on Dr. Rothman?" Ferretti directed toward Janet, who nodded. "All right, boys, with me."

Colonel Makepeace was quick to alert local law enforcement to look for a Robert Rothman wandering around Colorado Springs. He was less enthusiastic about sending SG-2 back to Machello's planet without the general there to authorize it, especially when Daniel asked to go along with them.

"Fine," he finally ground out. "But you go in MOPP 4. Consider that thing hazardous, and if you guys lose another civilian, I will kick your asses myself even before the general gets back. And that includes yours, Jackson."

"Yes, sir," they agreed. Daniel didn't bother to mention that if he got lost, there was no way Makepeace could kick any part of him at all, and then he found himself being hustled into the ready room. He was still trying to figure out how to pull on the bulky protective gear when Griff pushed the mask unceremoniously onto his head for him, and he spent a moment wondering frantically how long he was supposed to hold his breath before feeling like an idiot when he realized he could breathe just fine through the filter.

When the wormhole to Machello's planet was established, Colonel Makepeace's voice came over the speaker. _"Don't twiddle your thumbs, SG-2. I'll give you three hours to look around for people on that planet to help. You'd better have everything you need by then."_

XXXXX

General Hammond was back on base when they returned, Machello's invention in tow. "General," Griff said nervously, putting down the heavy crate of gathered devices he'd been carrying and pulling off his mask. Daniel let go of the handles of the machine that had started it all and followed suit, looking over it at Ferretti, who was letting go of the other side. "Sir, uh. The planet doesn't seem to be populated, but we...may...have another problem."

"That seems to be the order of the day," the general answered tiredly. "Major Ferretti--"

"General?" Daniel heard his own voice say, and closed his eyes. Well, not his own eyes, but...

The general paused and looked harder at them. "Mr. Jackson?"

"Yes, sir?" Daniel said, wincing when Ferretti's voice came out. He tried nervously to push his glasses higher.

"I don't wear glasses, Jackson," Ferretti snapped, scowling at him through Daniel's eyes.

"I know," Daniel said, past the initial panic now and beginning to notice the differences. There was the reduced field of vision in Ferretti's left eye from his injury over a year ago, a strong temptation to trip over legs muscled differently from his own, and the odd realization that, while he often felt like the smallest person on any team, he (well, Ferretti) was actually physically the shortest, which meant he (Daniel) usually wasn't.

Pronouns were going to be a problem until they fixed this. Proper nouns, too.

"How do you see through your damn hair?" Ferretti muttered, irritably pushing Daniel's fringe out of his face and storming down the ramp, stumbling but not falling as he reached the bottom. "General, we can explain, but--"

"I think I get the idea," General Hammond sighed. "Get that device into one of the labs, gentlemen." He looked at the crate of artifacts that Griff was picking up and added, "All of the devices. Report to the briefing room as soon as you're done."

"No touching this time," Ferretti said to Daniel.

"We were picking it up! Obviously, you touched it, too, or we wouldn't have switched at all," Daniel retorted to his own face, wishing selfishly for a moment that the machine had been heavier, so that Griff, who was stronger, would have volunteered to carry half of it instead of him. "And we still have to take it upstairs. Maybe it will switch us back if we both hold it again."

"Fine. Griff, you grab the crate of stuff and stay away from this thing," Ferretti said as they picked it up again. When nothing happened a moment later with the exception of an uncomfortable shock to them both, he added, "Man, I really hope Captain Carter can fix this."

Daniel shook his head, shuffling into the elevator before dropping the machine again. Ferretti barely waited for Griff to squeeze in, keeping a space between himself and Machello's switching machine, before punching the floor where Dr. Lee's lab was. "Not this time, Major. SG-1 is off-world, trying to contact a rebel faction of Goa'uld, so Sam's not here."

Griff gave both of them a highly disturbed look but didn't comment. Daniel looked curiously at Ferretti and wondered if that was really what his face looked like when he was annoyed.

The elevator stopped. Daniel and Ferretti picked up opposite ends of the device, flinching at the jolt again.

Just as the doors opened, however, two people barreled into them. Griff moved to stop them from running into the machine, but their momentum made him stumble back into the device himself before he could catch his balance. Daniel and Ferretti released the handles as quickly as possible, Griff barking, "Hey, watch it--alien device coming through!"

"Sorry," one of the newcomers said breathlessly. "Sergeant Siler's got an electrical burn, and we were...what is _that_?"

"Whoa," Daniel's voice said. "Holy crap, Jackson, your eyes suck."

"What?" Griff snapped, then did a double-take. "Oh. Shit. Daniel?"

"I'm here," Daniel said, still in Ferretti's body. "Are you Griff?"

"No, _I'm_ Griff," Daniel's voice answered instead as he rubbed his eyes. "Sir?"

"Right here. Dammit, I didn't let go fast enough. Okay," Ferretti said with Griff's voice, "so Griff and I just switched. Daniel, step back." When no one moved, he clarified impatiently, "The one with Daniel's brain."

Daniel scrunched Ferretti's body into the corner, letting Ferretti-who-looked-like-Griff and Griff-who-looked-like-Daniel take control of the handles. "Did it switch you back?" he asked them hopefully.

"Nope," Ferretti said, then hauled the machine out. "Everyone stay the hell out of the way this time. You get the crate, Daniel. We're out of here."

Daniel looked back as they moved toward Dr. Lee's lab, just in time to see that the scientist who'd bumped Griff had been distracted from the burn on Siler's arm and was blinking bemusedly at them with his mouth open, while Siler sighed and went to find the infirmary on his own. Daniel turned back and hurried after the others.

Any conversation among them was limited; it was odd enough walking around in the wrong body without trying to interact with people also in the wrong bodies. Daniel carefully didn't talk and tried not to trip over Ferretti's feet as they reported to the briefing room.

He wondered for a moment whether Goa'uld symbiotes had to adjust to their hosts' bodies at first, but maybe it was different when the host's mind was still present. Jolinar, he remembered far too well, had had all of Sam's easy grace, even in those first few hours, but that was probably because the Tok'ra symbiote had had access to Sam's thoughts as well as control of her body.

Daniel frowned at the memory and tried not to think about the fact that SG-1 was trying to ally Earth with the Tok'ra right then.

General Hammond had apparently heard Janet's explanation of what had happened to Robert and Machello and had pieced together what had happened when they'd tried to bring the machine back from the planet. "Major Ferretti..." he started, looking at Daniel's face.

"Actually, sir, I'm Captain Griff," Griff said, standing at attention with Daniel's hands behind his back.

"There was an accident on the elevator, sir," Ferretti added, carefully folding Griff's taller form into a chair.

Daniel ducked Ferretti's head and tucked his hands into his pockets when the general's gaze came his way.

"You people..." the general sighed, rubbing his forehead. "The good news is that someone carrying Dr. Rothman's ID has been spotted in a local diner, of all places. The police seem to think he's a confused foreigner because he speaks English poorly."

"Machello, then," Ferretti said.

"He'll be apprehended as soon as our people can get to him. In the meantime," the general said, his voice sharpening, "I want Dr. Rothman's consciousness out of a dying man's body by whatever means necessary. Major, I'm assuming from your current situation that you don't know how to reverse the process."

"No, sir, not yet," Ferretti confirmed. "It only seems to work once."

"Not exactly," Daniel corrected. "Major Ferretti has switched twice. Well," he amended, "either that, or _I_ have switched twice. It's hard to tell which."

General Hammond gave him an impatient look.

"I mean that if something is limiting the switching process, we don't know if it's the mind or the body. Major Ferretti's mind has been switched twice, and my, uh, body has had two minds switched into it. Maybe if we can figure out why it worked twice for him, or for me, then...uh...I don't know, actually."

"Or one of the scientists might be able to figure out how it works, period," Griff pointed out.

"What about the other devices you brought back?" the general asked.

"I can't read the instructions," Daniel said. "They're the same writing system as everything else, but the language is different."

"We may not have a lot of time here," the general warned. "Machello's body is not only very old but also in grave condition. Dr. Fraiser isn't sure how long she can keep him alive."

Daniel blinked. "And if he dies before we can switch Robert back into his own body, does that mean..."

"Yes."

"We'll go up to lab and see what we can do to help, then," Ferretti said. "We can hand the device with the notes over to Linguistics, see if someone can read it."

"Good," General Hammond agreed, standing. "Go ahead, and don't let anyone else get affected by this machine. As long as you're...not yourselves, you're banned from any projects besides solving this one, so I suggest you get it sorted out."

Daniel lingered, though, after Ferretti and Griff had left the room. "Sir, I was wondering...SG-1...?"

"No word yet," the general told him, anticipating his question. "There are some complications--business at home," he added when Daniel's eyes widened in alarm. "Captain Carter should be on her way back, and Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c will continue to the Tok'ra. Now," the general finished, "let them do their jobs, son. _You_ need to be up in Dr. Lee's lab."

"Yes, sir," he said automatically, forcing himself to focus by thinking deliberately of Robert in Machello's weakening body, and turned to follow the others down the hallway.

Dr. Lee had had the device placed on a wheeled platform, so only one person would have to touch it at a time if they needed to move it somewhere else. They stood watching him impatiently as he poked and prodded the device--for safety's sake, he said, in case too much exposure could be damaging or do something even worse.

"You were wearing overgarments when Daniel and Major Ferretti switched?" Dr. Lee asked.

"Yeah," Ferretti confirmed. "Full protection, with extra insulators between the gloves and the device when we picked it up."

Dr. Lee shook his head. "I can't understand it. There's definitely an electrical discharge, but it shouldn't have gotten through so much insulation, not without damage to the material, at least. There's something else about this device besides just electricity."

An off-world activation made them all jump and head out the door, until they remembered that none of them was allowed to do anything, anyway.

Ferretti nearly walked into the door on the way back in, unused to Griff's larger frame. Griff muttered something about clumsy teenaged limbs and carefully stayed against the wall. Daniel would have protested if he hadn't just misjudged the distance to a chair and sat down gracelessly, apologizing silently to Ferretti for bruising his body.

While they waited for Dr. Lee, Daniel idly picked up the metal ID tags hanging around his--well, Ferretti's--neck and looked at them curiously. "What's the difference between 'A NEG' and 'A POS?'" he asked.

Rolling Griff's eyes, Ferretti said, "An 'A POS' person won't die if he gets 'A NEG' blood. And you'd better not be memorizing my social security number, kid."

"I'm not," he said, but dropped the tags anyway. Dr. Lee was still reading something off his voltmeter, so Daniel closed one eye and squinted out into the hallway. "Hey, wow, I--you--can see the name on that door all the way over--"

"Daniel," Ferretti interrupted exasperatedly, looking a little uncomfortable, "can you try to find my body a little less interesting?"

Griff snorted. Ferretti flushed and kicked himself hard in the shin.

"Hey," Griff complained. "Sir, that's my leg."

"Yeah," Ferretti said. "So everyone shut up."

Daniel opened both of Ferretti's eyes and tried to stop fidgeting.

Finally, Dr. Lee declared that, as far as he could tell, whatever charge it emitted through the handles wouldn't kill them, probably, with the caveat that there was obviously something that he _couldn't_ tell about the machine. His only suggestion for reversal, however, was to try different configurations of holding the machine's handles and hope that it caused a second transfer.

"All right, Daniel, get over here and help me try this thing," Ferretti said, looking between him and Griff. "It's not gonna be your skin getting zapped if we can help it."

As they grabbed the handles, there was another small shock, but nothing happened. "Still the same," Daniel commented unnecessarily.

"Did you try it backwards before?" Dr. Lee asked. No one could remember which way it had been facing before, because it looked the same from both ends, so he switched places with Ferretti and tried again. And then it was something else, and something else...

"There aren't very many possible permutations of two people, two handles, and two sequences of touching the device," Daniel pointed out.

"Maybe it has to do with the people," Lee suggested.

"What could the difference possibly be?" Griff said. "We're all human."

"He's an alien," Ferretti said, pointing to the person who looked like Daniel, and then to the person who thought like Daniel, before dropping his finger for lack of a valid target.

Lee looked speculatively at Griff in Daniel's body, then shook his head. "The probability of such a significant genetic mutation in one generation is not great. Besides, the most common mutations I can think of would have taken place during meiosis or the subsequent fertilization, and as far as we know, the conception itself was a completely normal--"

"Yes," Daniel said loudly, feeling Ferretti's ears heat. "True. So."

"But it might be something less subtle than 'human versus not-human.' You know, tall versus short." When they all gave the engineer a disbelieving look, he amended, "Or something."

So Griff took Daniel's place at Machello's device, and they began the process again.

"What do you think the purpose of this device was?" Daniel asked as he watched.

"Who cares?" Ferretti said, shaking out Griff's hands as he was shocked yet again. "It switches people around. Maybe it's supposed to drive people insane, 'cause it's working."

"It's just...you said Machello told Robert that he invented all those things because he wanted to fight the Goa'uld. I don't see what good something like this would do."

"Good point; no idea," Griff said.

"You know," Dr. Lee said before anyone could offer an answer, "whatever's stopping the transference, it looks like it's not a question of the physical vessel, or even the consciousness itself. It could have to do with the _pair_ of consciousnesses being transferred. It might only work once with each pair."

"But it would work anytime a new pair was available for switching," Daniel thought aloud.

Griff let go of the machine. "If that's right, then if we're not careful, soon everyone on this base will be playing musical chairs with everyone else's bodies."

Dr. Lee nodded thoughtfully. "Who hasn't switched with whom?"

"Me and Jackson," Griff said. "Let's try it."

XXXXX

"Here, this should work," Daniel said when he was finally back in his own body. He held up a pad of paper, where he and Dr. Lee had worked out a plausible order of transfers. "If we follow this sequence, everyone should end up in the right body with no pair of minds having to be transferred twice."

"Let's go, then," Ferretti said. He and Griff were still stuck in each other's bodies--apparently, they needed at least four people in the wrong bodies or they ran out of pairs to finish the process, but with Robert and Machello, there would be enough people to get everyone back in the right body soon enough. "Griff, let's get this thing downstairs; Daniel, check over that list on the way."

It didn't take long to get to the right floor, and Ferretti waved him ahead as they wheeled the device along carefully.

"We have it," Daniel said excitedly when he arrived in the infirmary, then stopped short just inside at Janet's stony face as she bent over Robert in the bed. "What's wrong?"

"They found Machello," Janet said. "He's in one of the holding cells right now."

"The holding cells," Daniel repeated. "Why?"

"He resisted arrest at first, and now he's being very uncooperative."

A little confused, Daniel pointed out, "He might not understand you completely when you talk to him; no one can pick up that much English so fast. I'm sure if we explain it..."

But maybe not. Why would he have left at all, in that case, knowing what his device must have done, without telling people here what was happening?

"Where's the general?" Daniel asked Janet as Griff and Ferretti pulled the device into the room.

"Out," Janet said.

"Again?"

"Something came up with the Tok'ra. His orders were to clear this up whatever way we can. Daniel, you and Dr. Rothman may have to explain this to Machello."

"Won't work," Robert spoke up.

"Why not?" Daniel asked him. "I thought you were able to talk to him earlier."

"It's not the language; he can understand our Latin well enough. But I already told him when they first brought him in, and he says 'no.'"

"That's why he's in the holding cell," Janet informed him grimly.

"He said what?" Daniel said, not really believing that someone might do what all the evidence seemed to be suggesting. They had to give the man a chance to explain, that was all. He would understand when they told him what their dilemma was. "Well, we need to talk to him--maybe he doesn't realize it can be fixed. Can we go see him?"

Ferretti turned to one of the SFs at the door and ordered instead, "Bring Machello here, under guard. We might as well," he added to the rest of them, "since the device is here, and so is Dr. Rothman. We'll need him here to get it fixed."

When boots began to thump toward them, Daniel turned and couldn't help gaping a little at the sight of his mentor's body walking toward them like...not like an old man, exactly. More like someone who bore the experience of years and expected others to recognize that. How had that not caught someone's attention? Arrogance and confidence weren't the same, and while Robert might carry some of the former, he rarely showed the latter, not the way this man did--this man who had _stolen his body_ and was willing to...

Not yet. That was an assumption, an unsupported conclusion so far.

Once the man stopped in front of the hospital bed where Robert lay in Machello's body, Ferretti nodded to Daniel.

Focusing on Machello, Daniel took a breath and used the oldest form of Latin he knew, hoping it would be close enough to what had been spoken when Machello's people had split off from Earth. " _Hello, Machello. My name is Daniel, and this is Robert. There must have been some misunderstanding. We need you to undo what you did to him._ "

For a moment, Machello didn't answer, and Daniel began to wonder if he should try again and maybe go back even more toward something closer to what they knew of Proto-Italic. Then Machello smiled very slightly. " _There was no misunderstanding. I will not reverse the process._ "

The voice was the same, but the tone, even the accent and the inflection--they were all completely wrong. It was like when the Goa'uld had spoken with through Sam: her voice, her face, her body, but not her will.

Not that that had been a Goa'uld. A Tok'ra. Which was different. But not really. Well, that time with Jolinar had been an exception. Probably. Right?

But still, anyone who took over a body without consent...

" _You did this, knowing he would die?_ " Daniel asked carefully.

" _I did this_ ," Machello countered calmly, " _knowing that I would live._ "

To the others, Daniel said, "I think I might know why he built this machine. This way he could switch bodies whenever he wanted. Or maybe it was originally made to switch other people if their bodies were...oh, gods," he said as another horrifying thought struck him. "His technology was made for fighting the Goa'uld. He might have used this to transfer the mind of someone who had been taken by a Goa'uld into a fresh...a fresh body."

"But this isn't a unidirectional transfer," Dr. Lee said. "If someone is transferred out of a Goa'ulded body, someone else would be transferred _in_."

Daniel stared at Machello, wondering if he had a brother who had been taken by a Goa'uld, or perhaps a sister, or a lover, or a child.

"If that's the case, then that's...a terrible thought," Janet said, straightening in until she was standing almost at attention the way she did when she was angry or being very serious.

"Terrible," Daniel repeated hollowly, wondering whether he would do the same if Skaara were standing before him today, helpless to Klorel's whims. If Sha'uri were here, calling for her baby son while Amaunet controlled her body.

He wouldn't, of course. It was wrong. It was never right. At least, not unless...

No. No 'unless.' It was _never_ right, and for that, what Machello had done was unforgivable, and that was all. That had to be all.

" _There is no way to reverse the process_ ," Machello said. " _I made certain of that._ "

"Daniel, is he right?" Robert mumbled.

"He's wrong," Daniel said, and had the urge to laugh and tell Machello that they _had_ figured it out--that they'd found a solution, without needing his instructions, without needing his help, and all they needed him to do was touch the device--but first, he had to know one thing. " _Why would you do such a thing?_ "

" _I am a hero to my people,_ " Machello said. " _For fifty years, I fought against the Goa'uld. I have suffered more than anyone should suffer in a lifetime. I sacrificed my life so that your people and those like you could continue to live in freedom from slavery to false gods. The least you could do was compensate me with another._ "

"You don't get to decide that your life is more important than this man's," Janet said incredulously.

" _The knowledge that I hold is priceless_ ," the man said, not waiting for Janet's words to be translated; the tone was clear enough. " _With my help, your planet can be safe from the Goa'uld forever. Is that not worth more than the life of one man? Two billion of my people died rather than surrender me to the Goa'uld._ "

Daniel felt his face pale, even as he repeated the words in English.

"All right," Ferretti said. "I'm not sure this is the kind of help the general would welcome. Machines that help one person and screw over someone else in the process..."

In exchange for protecting the planet _,_ Daniel thought. If, he amended quickly, Machello was telling the truth. And Robert would still be dead. They didn't do things like this. They _wouldn't_.

"You may be right, Major," Janet agreed, lifting her chin and staring hard at Machello.

"So what you're saying," Ferretti continued to Machello, flicking a look at Daniel until he started to translate, "is that you refuse to cooperate in returning our man to his own body."

Machello looked unperturbed. " _As I already told you, even if I desired to do so, I cannot._ "

" _We have a way_ ," Daniel told him.

" _Impossible. And even if you did...even if I could change it, I_ would _not._ "

Looking worried, Dr. Lee said, "I don't know exactly how the device works, remember. There's the issue of conductance, and who gets affected, and there may be a, a...safeguard he has--I don't know if we can physically force him to participate if he resists."

Breaking his gaze, Daniel said, "A _zat'nik'tel_? He can't resist then."

"Daniel!" Janet rebuked, shocked.

"Hey," Robert added weakly, "that's my body."

"It won't kill him with one shot," Daniel pointed out. "Wh-what?" he added when he felt other stares on him.

"We can't just shoot him, Daniel," Janet said. "Deadly or not, we don't torture a prisoner to gain his cooperation."

Daniel faltered at hearing what his suggestion really meant. "But Robert's going to die," he said, because Machello had made himself the enemy first, hadn't he? "If this had happened in the middle of a battle, we would force him to undo this, you know we would, but it's different because we're safely on base? He's literally _killing_ Robert. At what point is it called 'self-defense' instead?"

Ferretti looked uneasy but said, "He's got a point."

"We'll find a way," Janet said firmly. "There are lines we don't cross just because someone hurt us first." She added a pointed look in Machello's direction. "If we do, we're no better than the enemy. At least wait for the general before anyone decides to take a more drastic step."

Apparently, Machello knew the word _zat'nik'tel_ and turned to him. " _Is this what my sacrifice has won me? You people, who know the benefits of all my years of suffering under the Goa'uld, my years of torture in their hands...you wish to attack me as you would our enemy? With a weapon of our enemy?_ "

The words dissolved some of Daniel's uncertainty, and he glared back. " _We are instructed to use a zat'nik'tel on the Goa'uld if there is a chance of saving the host. Perhaps this is such a case._ "

" _I am not a Goa'uld_ ," Machello hissed, taking a step forward and stopping only when an airman raised his gun in warning. " _I hate the Goa'uld!_ "

The protest rang in Daniel's mind with horrible familiarity as he remembered Jolinar.

He leaned forward across the bed toward Machello and said, " _The last one who said those words to me was a Goa'uld who hid in an innocent man's body. She let a world of innocent people be sacrificed so her enemy wouldn't find her, because she thought she was more important than they were. She took my friend's body by force, because her last host was dying. This is exactly the same!_ "

" _I am not a Goa'uld_ ," Machello repeated.

" _No? What makes you any different?_ "

" _If your friend is returned to this body, then you condemn me to death. How is that any different?_ " Machello parroted.

" _It was his first_ ," Daniel argued, trying not to flinch at the thought of condemning anyone to death. " _We have the right to reclaim what is his and not yours._ "

" _Those are your morals. The transfer occurred on my world. Your people entered without invitation. Why are your laws right and mine wrong?_ "

Daniel blinked. That hadn't occurred to him.

"What was that about?" Ferretti asked warily.

Straightening, Daniel said, "I was...I was telling him that what he's doing is no better than what the Goa'uld do."

Robert coughed once and drew in a long, wheezing breath. Daniel's gaze snapped to him, but Machello's body continued breathing. Janet took a few steps toward her patient, then looked up at the monitors. "Dr. Rothman?" she called gently. Robert groaned something but didn't open his eyes or make a move to do anything else.

Ferretti started for the doorway. "General Hammond said he wanted Dr. Rothman back by whatever means necessary," he said, "and right now, someone's trying to kill a consultant to my team. I'll go get a zat before it's too late for Dr. Rothman, unless someone wants to wrestle with the man."

"Major..." Janet started. Ferretti paused, hesitating, by the door.

" _How can you do this?_ " Daniel asked again.

" _Anyone would do the same,_ " Machello said.

" _No_ ," Daniel denied, shaking his head. " _We would not. We fight the Goa'uld; we do not become like them._ "

Machello raised his chin slightly, so that the agony of a life of war and fear and torture shone clear in Robert's eyes. " _Such are the words of a naïve world that does not yet know the pain of generations upon generations lost to the enemy._ "

" _Years from now, if the Goa'uld have not yet been defeated_ \--"

Machello laughed, mocking and bitter all at once.

Clenching his hands into fists, Daniel continued, " _If they have not been defeated, we will still believe the same._ "

" _Are you certain of that?_ "

" _I am!_ "

" _You were not so certain a moment ago_ ," Machello said. " _Bring your zat'nik'tel, then. Who will you be when you have fought the Goa'uld as long as I have?_ "

Daniel reeled back a half-step and didn't know what to say.

"You know," Janet said, not looking away from Robert and the monitors, "maybe you're right. He's using Dr. Rothman the same way the Goa'uld use their hosts. Tell him that, Daniel."

" _Machello,_ " he started, mechanically, still thinking over the man's words and reminding himself of what the man had suffered and what crime he was committing now, " _you have become a Goa'uld. My friend is only a host to you, and--_ "

Robert gasped. Wizened, cloudy eyes widened in sudden alarm, then slowly slid closed as his body slumped back into the hospital bed and slipped into unconsciousness.

"Dr. Rothman," Janet said, her fingers moving to his pulse and her eyes snapping to the monitors. An alarm sounded. "He's in v-fib," she said, her voice sharpening when there was no response. She laced her fingers together and leaned on Machello's unmoving chest, snapping, "Prepare the paddles!"

"What," Daniel said, his feet trying to take him to the bedside. A pair of hands pulled him back, and he turned to Griff. "What is that? What is she doing?"

"S'called CPR--his heart's stopped, and she's trying to restart it," Griff said tensely. "Give her space, Jackson, stay back--"

Daniel choked and tried to lunge forward again, more insistently. "His heart--Robert? Robert!"

"Come on," Janet muttered.

"Daniel," Ferretti said, stepping in front of him as a barrier, blocking sight and path at once.

"But..." His attempts to reach Robert thwarted, Daniel turned to Machello instead, pleading this time, " _He is going to die. Please! You cannot do this; you're killing him--"_

"Wait a minute," Janet called. "I've got a heartbeat."

Daniel whipped around to see her watching the monitor again, one of her hands still resting on her patient's chest.

"It's beating on its own," she announced finally, sagging almost imperceptibly in momentary relief, "but I don't know for how long. Give me one mil eppy."

Movement on the other side of the bed caught Daniel's attention, and he looked over to see Machello looking down at his own dying body. " _What are you doing?_ " Daniel asked him bitterly. " _What more could you possibly want from him?_ "

" _Were you lying when you said you had a way to reverse this?_ "

Daniel widened his eyes in surprise, shaking his head emphatically. " _No, no, we were not lying. There is a simple way, and we can do it now._ " He glanced at the unconscious form on the bed and amended, " _We_ must _do it now._ "

" _Do I not deserve a chance to live?_ " Machello said.

A twisting spike of sympathy took Daniel unawares. " _You cannot take it by stealing the life of another. He deserves life, too._ "

" _I am not a Goa'uld_ ," Machello said again, almost as if to himself this time.

" _No,_ " Daniel agreed. " _You do not have to be. Please._ "

Machello closed his eyes. When he opened them several moments later, he nodded slowly and looked toward the device again. " _Tell me how. I will take his place._ "

"Jackson?" Ferretti asked sharply.

"He'll do it," Daniel said, relieved and miserable at once.

Griff's eyebrows shot up at the sudden acquiescence, but he didn't ask questions as he quickly pulled the device toward the bed.

Machello was still staring at Robert, but he turned suddenly to Daniel. " _I wish I could teach your people how to use my inventions. I truly wish only to destroy the Goa'uld, the same as you._ "

Swallowing, Daniel answered, " _I know._ "

" _Tell your friend_ ," Machello said, reaching for the handles of the device. " _I am grateful for the holiday._ "

" _I will_ ," he replied numbly.

"How do we do this?" Janet asked urgently. "How does this work?"

Daniel handed the list of transfers to her and said only, "Hurry."

When everyone had finally found his own body again, he stood silently and held Machello's eyes until Janet gently pulled a sheet over his face.


	19. Hosts, Part II

**_26 January 1999; SGC, Earth; 1500 hrs_ **

"It's good to be back," Ferretti said, turning his own hands in front of his eyes.

"You think _you_ had it bad?" Robert said, rubbing a hand over his chest as if he couldn't believe he was still breathing.

"Yeah, nice to have you back, too, Dr. R."

Daniel turned when he heard a door squeak softly behind him, and he saw Griff finish pulling the infirmary door closed. The four of them stood awkwardly in the corridor just outside for a moment, staring and trying not to stare, and then Ferretti cleared his throat and beckoned them away.

"We should go to the briefing room," Robert said. "The general will want to know what happened when he gets back from wherever." Daniel took a final look back at the infirmary's closed door, where he imagined he could still see Janet pulling a sheet over Machello's broken body, then followed Major Ferretti away to the elevator.

When they neared the bottom two levels, however, the distinctive grinding and sequential locking of chevrons made them reflexively veer off-course toward the control room to see who would be establishing an outgoing wormhole when there were no missions scheduled.

"General Hammond!" Ferretti said, taken aback. "Uh, welcome back, sir. You missed...quite a scene."

The general turned around, nodding when he saw Robert. "Tell me everyone's back to normal, Major."

"Yes, sir, we're all ourselves. Is anything wrong?"

"Chevron two encoded," the technician called as Jack--he must have gotten back with that incoming wormhole a few hours ago--walked through the side blast door into the embarkation room, turning back as if waiting for someone else to follow him.

"Did they really find the Tok'ra, sir?" Daniel asked, frowning. "Where are they going?"

The general nodded. "They did. However, the Tok'ra needed something to show that we can be not only trustworthy but also useful allies to them."

"What, killing a few System Lords doesn't count?" Griff spoke up.

"Apparently not," General Hammond said dryly. "According to Captain Carter, what they want the most from us is hosts that can blend with their symbiotes."

Daniel felt alarm shiver through him and looked again at Jack through the control room window. "General, you can't be saying that he's going to offer himself as a--"

"No, I'm certain Colonel O'Neill would never agree to that. However, we may have another candidate."

" _...is the alien thing you found?"_ an unfamiliar voice reached them through the 'gate room speakers.

An older man stepped through the blast door, looking around in awe and not a little disbelief. Sam followed, taking his arm to lead him into the room ahead. _"Yup,"_ Sam said, smiling at him.

"That's Major General Jacob Carter," General Hammond said. "If all goes well, he will serve as Earth's liaison with the Tok'ra."

"Carter?" Robert said. "As in...?"

"Sam's father is a general," Daniel told him. "But sir, I thought...isn't General Carter..." He bit off the words ' _terminally ill_ ' as he watched Sam lead her father gently toward the base of the ramp, Jack hovering carefully nearby, as if preparing to catch the man if he stumbled. General Carter certainly didn't look like he was ready to take on any sort of mission.

"We already knew that symbiotes have a remarkable healing ability," General Hammond explained. "Supposedly, they can cure most human injuries and diseases, and we're hoping that Jacob Carter's becoming a host might solve his problem as well as ours."

"Really." The Goa'uld healing ability was one of those facts that they all knew but never really thought about, except in the sense that it made System Lords particularly difficult to defeat for good. "That could be the basis of the mutual relationship that Jolinar claimed the Tok'ra have with their hosts."

"Wait, Captain Carter agreed to let her father...be snaked?" Robert asked, shuddering. "Being Goa'ulded has got to be one of my worst nightmares."

The general gave him a wry look. "Believe me, Doctor, I understand. This was, in fact, her idea."

Robert snorted. "We should've sent Machello through when we had the chance. It might've cured him of his problems, or at least let him live without taking over _my_ body."

"There's no way Machello would have agreed to that," Daniel countered, half of his mind wondering that either of the Carters were able to agree to it while the other half tried to grasp an idea that was floating just out of reach. Hosts. Healing. Symbiotic. "He hated the Goa'uld."

"They're Tok'ra, Daniel," Robert reminded him. "But yeah, maybe you're right about that. It's too late now, anyway." General Hammond looked at them questioningly at that.

"He, uh, didn't make it, sir," Ferretti said. "We barely finished the transfer before Machello's heart stopped. Dr. Fraiser couldn't do anything."

"Other people might agree to it, though," Daniel said slowly.

"Body-switching?"

"No, blending with the Tok'ra." The thought of doing that made Daniel cringe, but he was aware that some people might entertain the idea, and perhaps with good reason. "There must be people on Earth who are injured or ill, or who want to live longer and gain millennia of knowledge. Maybe the Tau'ri could provide the Tok'ra with willing hosts."

" _Chevron seven, locked!_ " the technician called.

General Hammond looked thoughtful, then told the four of them, "I'll tell Colonel O'Neill to offer that possibility to the Tok'ra, and I want to hear about Machello once I see General Carter off."

As they took their seats in the briefing room to wait, Daniel asked, "What about the sarcophagus? Couldn't we revive Machello with that?"

Robert shook his head. "If it were just a matter of injuries, maybe. But Dr. Fraiser thinks it can't undo the cumulative effects of aging on cells and DNA. You know what telomeres are?"

"The, uh...end...parts?" Daniel guessed, though in this case, the etymology wasn't particularly illuminating on its own.

"They're pieces of DNA that...uh...okay, never mind the details," Robert said. "The point is, they get shorter with old age, and the sarcophagus can't grow them back once the cells have shut off...whatever it is that makes them grow back when you're younger, you know?"

"Not really," Daniel said honestly, "but okay. So..."

"Machello's body is old. That's just how it is. We could probably keep him alive, but he'd die of old age again soon after or might end up with other irreparable defects, and I don't think anyone would risk those kinds of side effects for such a short reprieve. He'd have to be revived again and again and would go insane pretty fast."

"That is," Ferretti added, "if the general would even _authorize_ it, given that the guy just tried to kill Dr. Rothman here. And there's a time limit--by the time his body got to Area 51, it might be too late to avoid permanent damage."

"Why can't we just keep it here, then?" Daniel asked. "It makes no sense."

"Too risky," Ferretti said. "Too much temptation, with so much sensitive stuff around this facility. If one person slipped up and got hooked on it, a lot could be compromised. More importantly, we still don't know if there are long-term side effects of using it."

"I've been revived in a sarcophagus twice, and nothing's happened to me," Daniel said, frustrated. "What's the point of having it at all if we never use it?"

"Pete Freeman was healed last month using it," Griff pointed out. "Would've bled out and died otherwise, so it's saved people. But if you ask me, that thing's more trouble'n it's worth."

Scowling, Daniel retorted, "Does Captain Freeman think that, too?"

"Jackson, that's enough," Ferretti ordered. "That's not what anyone's saying, and you know it. Remember Lieutenant Blakely?" Daniel dropped his eyes and nodded. Blakely had been brought back three weeks ago with a fatal staff wound and refused flat-out to be sent to Area 51 to be healed, saying he'd rather die naturally than get _'hooked up to Goa'uld voodoo that messes with people's heads.'_ "It's not that simple. That's all."

...x...

"How exactly was Machello convinced to do this?" General Hammond asked when they'd almost finished their story.

Ferretti raised his eyebrows at Daniel from across the table. "Not totally sure what Daniel said, but he did most of the convincing."

Robert had an knowing look in his eye, though, and Daniel wondered just how much of the conversation with Machello he had been conscious enough to hear. "Machello decided on his own," Daniel said. That was important. "Eventually, he saw that what he'd done was wrong."

"And then we all switched around until everyone was back in the right body," Griff finished. "Just in time, too, sir, because Machello went into a coma just after that and...died soon after."

"I see," the general said. "Were you all examined by Dr. Fraiser at any point?"

"No, sir, not yet," Ferretti answered. "The doctor was occupied with...uh, taking care of Machello's body." Daniel wondered whether they were all as uncomfortable as he was with what had happened in the infirmary. "Anyway, we all felt fine, so she didn't push it."

"You'll be seen by someone in the infirmary as soon as we're done here, then," the general ordered. "I don't want any more surprises today. Do we know enough about that device to use it safely?"

"It doesn't seem to be harmful in and of itself," Robert said with distaste. "It seems to be mostly a matter of being careful about who's being switched, and you need more than...three people, I think, if you want everyone to get back to normal."

"But I'd consider it potentially dangerous," Ferretti said. "It's an easy way of taking someone else's identity, and Dr. Lee thinks it would be difficult to physically force someone to use it, because anyone touching the thing might be affected. Layers of insulation didn't protect us from the effects, and we're not quite sure what would."

"For what it's worth, I don't see how it could be useful," Daniel put in.

"Well, it definitely could be useful," Griff said. "Really useful, if we got creative."

"But _not_ without serious moral question."

"Yeah. And a huge risk if it falls into the wrong hands."

The general nodded. "In that case, I'm going to suggest sending it back to the planet to remove that temptation from anyone's mind. Major, do you see any reason to visit that planet again?"

Ferretti considered. "Machello seemed to be the only person there--"

_Because he let two billion of his people die for him_ , Daniel thought, unable to imagine what would make someone let that happen and still horrified by that fact, even if Machello had proven he was still human in the end.

"--so it was him and a lot of high-tech devices, and we don't know how they work or what they do. If an engineering team wants to take a closer look, though, I recommend a lot of caution."

"I'll keep that in mind. What about the items you've already brought back?"

"No one's made much progress on the tablet with instructions for using his inventions," Daniel said. "The phonology was... It was as if it wasn't a real language at all, but just strings of meaningless sound with no apparent pattern or rules."

"I doubt that," Robert countered. "Probably not meaningless, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that it was a code Machello used, maybe to prevent anyone from ever figuring it out. In that case, I'd say the chances are slim to none if we're trying to find rules of natural language."

"I picked up a few more notebooks in a much more decipherable language," Daniel said. "We can work on those when we get the chance. Dr. Lee will be interested in the other devices."

"Dr. Lee will have to live with the disappointment," General Hammond said firmly. "They'll be sent to Nellis for storage, given how potentially dangerous any of those devices could be. You can continue with those notebooks if you'd like, but it's not a priority."

Those notebooks weren't technical notes--Daniel was certain of that, even after only a few minutes of quickly skimming through them. They were journals, like the ones his parents used to keep, not for cultural observations but for their personal thoughts. Reading them now felt like violating Machello's privacy. Archaeologists did it all the time, of course, and when the civilization was long dead, it was called _data_ and _evidence_. Somehow, it seemed wrong when the man had just died--when they had watched him die, and had a hand in bringing it about.

They had convinced Machello to die with his body; wouldn't it be wrong to read his thoughts? Would it help them understand what had happened to Machello, or what he was trying to do, or what had made him long so fiercely for another life? Did they have that right?

"Mr. Jackson, did you hear me?"

"Wha--uh, I'm sorry?" Daniel said, snapping back to attention. The others were watching him, as if waiting for an answer.

General Hammond raised his eyebrows. "I asked if there anything else that needs to be said?"

He shook his head, embarrassed. "No. No, sir."

"In that case..." The general stood. "This is as good a time as any to say this. You've all heard about team reorganizations. Thank you all for your work on SG-2; I'm confident that you'll uphold that excellence in your new assignments or with your new teammates. Starting two days from now, Major Ferretti, you'll start working with SG-12. Captain Griff will be joined on SG-2 by Major Coburn and Captains Pierce and Freeman as a support team. Dr. Rothman, Mr. Jackson, you can take regular training missions with SG-1 or the research or diplomatic teams for the time being. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," they chorused, tiny looks darting around the room as each person received his assignment.

"All right, then," the general finished. "Report to the infirmary."

XXXXX

_((_

_Daniel was already waiting when the incoming wormhole was established. Sam stepped out first, waving a symbiote in her hand. "I found a friend," she called, holding up the snake, which squealed and twisted angrily in her fist. Then Jack stepped through, and she put the struggling Goa'uld on the back of his neck, explaining, "It needs a host, or it won't trust us."_

_Jack shrugged and let the symbiote sink into his skin as Teal'c and General Carter followed them onto the ramp. "I will never trust a Goa'uld," he said, but that didn't stop the symbiote from digging into his neck._

" _What?" Daniel said, confused._

_Then Jack's eyes flashed white and Daniel recoiled, stepping backward onto Robert's toes. Robert gave him a wry smile and said, "I know. Being Goa'ulded has got to be one of my worst nightmares. Go on up and finish the physics problem set Captain Carter gave you."_

" _No, wait, but," Daniel said inarticulately, pointing at Jack. "But! But look!"_

" _There is nothing, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c told him, staring at Jack. "You must not let them distract your focus."_

" _But it was just there," Daniel maintained. "General?" He'd meant General Hammond, but when he turned, he found himself looking at the Goa'uld light in the eyes of Sam's father._

" _It's all right," General Carter's Goa'uld said, his voice deep and distorted. "It's a good Goa'uld, remember? Its very name says that it's against the System Lords, didn't you say that?"_

" _He, not it," Daniel said. "The symbiote is male, because he stole the personal pronoun of the host."_

" _But the host is female," Jolinar said through Sam. "Is she not?"_

" _You're dead," Daniel said to her._

" _Of course I'm not dead, Daniel," Sam said reasonably, in her own voice. "Think about it logically. You did remember to input everything in base eight, didn't you?"_

" _I don't even know what that means! If the answer is so clear, why does it take more time to realize it?"_

" _Trees," Jack said sagely, as if that explained it. "The wind whistles, and everyone stops listening, but only after you cook your meal with a candle."_

" _Not to worry, son," General Hammond told him, patting him on the shoulder with a heavy hand. "We'll get them back."_

_Daniel turned his head in bewilderment from the general to his friends. "But how?"_

" _Use my device," Machello offered. "Here. You can switch Sam with Sha'uri and Jack with Skaara."_

" _I can't," Daniel insisted, and he couldn't remember the reason why he couldn't, or maybe shouldn't, but he was sure there had to be a reason. He raised his hand and found a_ zat'nik'tel _primed and ready to fire. "Change them back," he demanded._

_Machello shook his head, disappointed. "How are you any different from them? Or from me?"_

'I won't fire _,_ ' _Daniel thought, then saw his friends' eyes glow all at once._ 'I won't!'

_When he looked back, the blast door was opening. Skaara walked in, smirked, and raised his ribbon device. Panicking at the sight of the Goa'uld device that he secretly feared more than any other, Daniel aimed the_ zat'nik'tel _and--_

_))_

"Mr. Jackson?"

Daniel's eyes snapped open. He reflexively tried to throw himself out of his chair when he saw someone's shadow hovering over him, but he succeeded only in tripping over the chair leg and taking the entire chair to the ground with him with a gasp. He landed sprawled on the ground, and only when the carpeted floor registered did he realize that he was in the briefing room, not in front of the Stargate ramp.

"Daniel," General Hammond said, bending over him in alarm. "Are you all right?"

Stilling, Daniel turned instead to look through the window to the embarkation room. The Stargate was inactive. The briefing room was empty, except for him and the general, and a closed physics book lay on the table before him.

"S-sorry, General," he muttered, jumping to his feet and nervously straightening his jacket. He tried to adjust the glasses on his face but pulled them off instead when he imagined he could still see the _zat'nik'tel_ in his hand. He cleared his throat, embarrassed, and tapped the unopened book before him. "I was trying to study, but I guess that didn't really...um." He bent quickly and righted the chair. "Wow. Sorry."

"What are you still doing here?" General Hammond asked, not unkindly. "In fact...have you been awake ever since you got back to Earth last night?"

"No, no, sir," Daniel said. He'd caught a few hours of sleep in between watching Sam dream through the observation window after she had gone to his office around midnight to ask about the vision, and obviously, he'd just been asleep now, hadn't he? "Not exactly," he amended. "I'll turn in my report, General, but there's not a lot to say from...from my perspective, since I didn't go to the planet originally, with...uh...with..." He cleared his throat again and tried to organize his thoughts. "With Robert and SG-2."

"Well, you've managed to have quite a day, anyway," the general pointed out, taking a seat. By habit, Daniel sank back into his own chair, as well. "I'm not worried that your report will be late. Why don't you go get some rest first?"

"I wanted to wait for SG-1," he said, unable to stop a glance out the window. Inactive. No wormhole. No Goa'uld. No Goa'ulded friends. "I mean, I know they're good at getting out of trouble, but you said the Tok'ra were suspicious, and Sam's father is there, and I just... Well, I can see 'gate activations from here, so it's easier... Oh, uh, am I in the way of--"

"You're not in the way," the general assured him. "I understand the sentiment completely. You were distracted this afternoon, and when I saw you out here...well, I wanted to see that you're taking care of yourself."

Daniel folded his hands, still trembling from the abrupt awakening and maybe from more than just that, and made sure they were hidden in his lap. "Sir?"

"You've had a difficult year," General Hammond said, "and, around here, it never seems to get any easier, I realize. If you're falling asleep over your books, maybe it's time to take a break."

"It's okay," Daniel protested. "Robert restricts the amount of work I'm allowed to do at a time. It's not usually this busy, but we don't usually get, uh, transferred into other people's bodies, either. Heh."

The general chuckled. "Fair enough. I'm sure Dr. Rothman exercises good discretion. If you're sure, then, I'll let you get back to your studies."

"Yes, sir," Daniel said, starting automatically to stand as the general did, only to remember halfway through, as he often forgot, that that seemed to be one of the military customs he wasn't required to follow. General Hammond patted him on the shoulder, just the way he had in the dream, and Daniel cringed back into his seat before he could think about it. He peeked at his hand one more time to make sure he wasn't holding a weapon, which, of course, he wasn't.

"Are you sure you're feeling all right?" the general asked him.

"I'm sorry," he said again, shaken and sheepish at once, feeling oddly trapped in his seat with the general standing over him. "I had a...strange dream, that's all. I'm still a little...just. Um."

General Hammond stopped and pulled back. "Mr. Jackson, we can't save the world every day on no sleep."

"I'd settle for saving one person," Daniel heard himself say before he could bite back the words.

The general pursed his lips. "Is this about Machello?"

"No, sir," he said, because it wasn't. Then, because it kind of was, in a way, "Maybe, sir. I don't know."

"Dr. Rothman is alive," General Hammond reminded him. "I'll count that as a victory, and from what I hear, you played a part in saving _him_ from someone who would have taken his life."

"Machello dedicated his life to fighting the Goa'uld," Daniel said, looking up from where he sat. "He was...he'd just been hurt so much, I think he lost sight of...of things. General, do you think...was he more like us, at first, and after years and years, he just became...it just became too hard?"

"It's possible. We may never know...but there's a difference between him and us."

"Sir?"

"Machello was alone," the general said. "I can't say if that was his fault or the Goa'uld's, but he was alone. Look around you, Daniel--we're not any of us on our own here, and we're not even on our own out there." He pointed toward the Stargate. "We have people here and allies all over the galaxy to make sure we don't forget what we're fighting for."

"Allies like the Tok'ra?"

"Probably, from the looks of things," General Hammond said. "Captain Carter believes the Tok'ra might be the most important allies we'll ever have."

"Even though they don't trust us," Daniel said.

"Trust is a complicated thing, son, especially when the stakes are this high," the general told him.

Daniel couldn't help but think that trust _shouldn't_ be complicated, but he knew that it often was, and that 'should' often had a weak correlation with reality. "There was really nothing else we could offer them, besides a host?"

The general sighed. "Colonel O'Neill said the team offered to share what intelligence and technology we have. They even offered the sarcophagus, but the Tok'ra refused. They refused, in fact, to deal with anyone who made use of a sarcophagus and even...advised that we destroy it."

Daniel raised his eyebrows in alarm. "Sir, you're not going to, are you?"

"I've considered putting it away," he said. "I can't even begin to imagine the ethical dilemmas that device will cause, especially because of its secrecy, not to mention what we've witnessed of its side effects. The only uses I've approved thus far were life-and-death situations."

"What about the ethical concerns of destroying a life-saving device?" Daniel asked. Even Colonel Maybourne had recovered, and while he was no longer working at Area 51, he was back at NID headquarters in some restricted capacity, the last Daniel had heard. "Surely, if its use is regulated carefully..."

Sternly, the general said, "Mr. Jackson, I'm aware that this isn't a simple decision. I'm not taking any action now except to make sure the sarcophagus doesn't do any more harm, but the fact that the Tok'ra are so wary of its use should tell us something."

It was all down to the Tok'ra's word now--not just the sarcophagus, but the lives of SG-1, SG-3, who'd been sent to help them and hadn't come back, and General Carter. How could the SGC be certain that they were trustworthy?

The Tok'ra were enemies of the Goa'uld. That would have to be enough. Machello hadn't been a Goa'uld, either. But he'd been wrong, even if he'd given in at the end. Jack was always reminding him that the enemy of their enemy wasn't always a friend they could trust. What if the Tok'ra were like that?

"Yes, sir," Daniel finally said. "Thank you for your time, General."

General Hammond smiled faintly, and this time Daniel didn't flinch when the older man lay a hand gently on his shoulder. "You let me know if you need anything, son."

" _Off-world activation!_ " Sergeant Harriman called. " _Incoming wormhole!_ "

"That's probably them right now, coming back from the Tok'ra," the general said, and they went together to the control room. "Wait here," he added, and Daniel stopped before the console to watch through the window as the general hurried to the 'gate room.

"Hey, Daniel," Ferretti said as he descended into the control room as well--it was standard procedure for the most senior team or the most senior commander on base when the 'gate was activated unscheduled. He glanced at the dialing computers, then said, "How much you wanna bet that's SG-1?"

"SG-1's iris code," Harriman said.

"No bet," Daniel said.

XXXXX

**_26 January 1999; SGC, Earth; 1800 hrs_ **

Jacob Carter turned to Jack, smirking wryly. "Selmak says--let me see if I can translate this--'don't call us; we'll call you.'"

The other guy--Martouf--tore himself away from staring at Carter and joined Jacob and Garshaw on the ramp. Jack snuck a glance at his second-in-command and found her looking intently into the wormhole until all three Tok'ra disappeared through it and it disengaged. Carter's gaze lingered another moment on the inactive Stargate before she turned away.

"SG-1?" the general said. "What happened out there?"

"Basically, there was snake in the grass," Jack couldn't resist saying. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him. "There was a spy, which is why they wanted to move to a new planet to set up their base."

"And we have no way of contacting them," Hammond clarified.

"I'm guessing not." _'Don't call us; we'll call you.'_ What the hell was that, anyway? "But frankly, sir, I get the impression they need help as much as we do, and they seem willing enough to share intelligence and technology, if only to make sure we don't accidentally kill their undercover operatives."

"General," Carter said, "thank you, sir, for allowing this to happen. With my father, I mean."

Hammond nodded, giving her a brief smile. "Captain, I can't tell you how glad I am that this worked out for him. Now, if that's all, I'd appreciate it if you would go upstairs and reassure someone that your mission went well." He pointed upward. Jack raised his eyes to see Ferretti watching from the control room, but he suspected Hammond was referring to Daniel, who was hovering anxiously behind Sergeant Harriman's chair. "Take thirty minutes before the debrief, and then you're all on stand-down until your next missions."

Makepeace's team left first, and, as Jack was about to walk out after them, Hammond stopped him by adding, "Colonel O'Neill."

"General?"

"Take Daniel home tonight, Jack. We've been a little tightly wound around here lately."

Jack exchanged a glance with his team, then looked up once more, where Ferretti raised his hands as if to say, _'well?'_ while Daniel had started to rock slowly, nervously, on his heels. Hammond tried to stay out of what passed for their personal lives most of the time, even Daniel's, whose personal life mostly took place on base. If he was interfering now, it meant he thought it was necessary, so...

"Right. Will do, sir," he said, then moved toward the stairs so he could figure out what had being going on while they'd played at houseguest to the Tok'ra.

"All clear, Ferretti," Jack told the major when they were in the control room. "You can relax."

Ferretti gave him a thumbs up. "You look happy," he commented. "I take it the rebel Goa'uld thing with General Carter was a success?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Jack said. "There were some, ah...internal problems on their end, which we helped them fix, but overall, we made friendly contact with the Tok'ra."

"My dad will liaise with them for the SGC," Carter added.

Jack thought it seemed more a matter of having Selmak liaise with SGC for the Tok'ra--he was staying with the Tok'ra, after all, not with the SGC--but either way, it worked out okay, because hell if Jacob Carter hadn't turned out to be a better man than Jack's first impression of him had been. "By the way, how did you know about the...?"

"We saw you and General Carter walk through here," Daniel explained, visibly relaxing upon learning that nothing had gone horribly wrong. "We'd just gotten Machello out of Robert's body when we saw you leaving."

Jack blinked. "What?"

"Machello was a human alien that SG-2 and Robert found," he explained without explaining anything. "He had a device that did something to our minds, but it's okay now. We all have a few bruises, but I only had both of SG-2 in my body at one point or another, and I was only in Major Ferretti's--"

"Jackson!" Ferretti exclaimed.

"Whoa!" Jack said, slashing his hands apart in the sign for _'stop.'_ "Hold it right there!"

"It's not what he made it sound like, Colonel," Ferretti said emphatically, his face pink and glaring at Daniel. "It was this alien device that switched our bodies."

Carter's eyebrows rose. "Switched your _bodies_?"

"No, it didn't," Daniel said impatiently, looking annoyed. Carter looked a little disappointed for a moment, but then he added, "We think it switched our minds. The bodies stayed physically in the same place. Janet said something about...scrambling our neural networks."

"Yeah," Ferretti agreed more calmly. "That's why we're off-duty at least twenty-four hours until she's sure our brains aren't going to fall apart."

Jack took a moment to wonder if that was a joke, but both of them looked frighteningly serious. "Uh-huh," he said.

"Something was actually able to exchange the neural connections that determine personality, knowledge, memory...everything?" Carter asked. "Sir, do you know what that means?"

"No," Jack said.

"It means that this...Machello person must have understood the anatomy and physiology of the human brain _extremely_ well. There's no other way he could have invented a device that has such precise effects on the brain. I mean, not even thinking about the device itself, that kind of understanding could have a profound impact on our understanding of basic neuroscience."

"Machello is a name well known to the System Lords," Teal'c added, his voice taking on a tinge of interest. "Since before I was born, he has been developing advanced technology to battle the Goa'uld. One of my first assignments as First Prime of Apophis was to hunt him."

"Teal'c," Daniel started, shuffling uneasily. "I don't think...uh..."

"Machello is dead," Ferretti explained seriously. The discomfort in his expression--and Daniel's--wasn't only disappointment about a fallen ally, though Jack wasn't totally sure what it was. "If you'd like details of what we managed to learn about the device, Captain, then Dr. Lee, Dr. Fraiser, or I can explain later."

"So can I," Daniel allowed, though he still sounded disturbed by something, and Ferretti gave the back of his head a wary look and silently mouthed _'Ask me'_ behind his back. "Oh, Sam, I'm really glad your father's better."

_Subtle_ , Jack thought.

Carter was looking somewhere between confused and disappointed at the loss of someone who knew a lot of neuroscience, but in the end, she gave him a small, sincere smile. "Yeah, me, too. Uh, we should really get the post-mission exam over with, but we'll see you later."

"Have fun, guys," Ferretti said, waving as he walked away.

"Hey, team night," Jack declared. "Carter, Teal'c, any objections to leaving as soon as the debriefing's over?"

"I have no objections," Teal'c agreed.

"No, sir," Carter said. "I'll drive Teal'c."

"Good," Jack said. "Daniel, you might as well get ready, too. There's not much left we need to get out in this debrief, so we'll be done pretty soon."

"Oh," Daniel said uncertainly, "that's okay; I was going to stay and..."

"Aht!" Jack cut him off. "Nope. Ferretti just said you're all off-duty for tomorrow, at _least_. If you still have something you want to work on, bring it with you."

XXXXX

"General Carter's a host now," Daniel commented once they were in the car and on their way home.

Jack focused on carefully navigating the snowy road. "Jacob Carter? Yeah, that's right."

"It was his choice?"

"We didn't make him, if that's what you're asking."

"Would you do it?"

He glanced over. "What, be a host? You know the answer to that, Daniel."

"Would you, Jack?" Daniel pressed, more urgently this time. "Would you agree to being a host to a symbiote, if you were asked and if it were a Tok'ra? Even if it was a...an ally, and he needed you to be a host to save his life?"

"Honestly, I don't think I could," Jack admitted, starting to get a little worried now. "What's bringing this on, kid?"

This time, there was no answer. When he looked over, Daniel had crossed his arms over his seatbelt and was staring moodily out the window, frowning hard at something.

"Something you need to tell me?" he tried to tease. "'Cause if you got Goa'ulded without consulting m--"

"No!" Daniel growled, turning sharply to him. "How can you say that?"

Surprised, Jack stopped at a red light and looked at Daniel more fully. "It was a joke," he said, realizing belatedly that joking with Daniel about Goa'uld was touchy at the best of times, much less when he clearly wasn't in a joking mood. "Bad joke, but I'm...kidding. Seriously, Daniel, what's going on?"

Instead of responding, Daniel slumped back in his seat and asked, "Are the Tok'ra really different from the Goa'uld?"

"Yeah, they do this thing... They switch between the symbiote and the host. One minute you're talking to a Goa'uld, and the next minute you're talking to a regular...person."

"Are you sure?" Daniel insisted. "They try to trick you sometimes, you know. Jolinar did it to fool us--even Sam doesn't deny that Jolinar wasn't honest."

"Daniel, do you think Carter would've asked her dad to join the Tok'ra if we weren't _absolutely_ sure they were the good guys?" Carter honked impatiently from behind them, and Jack looked back at the road to find that the light had turned green. As he started driving again, he added, "You were pretty optimistic about them this morning. Something happen?"

"Teal'c said he hunted Machello. The System Lords wanted to capture him, probably as much as they wanted to capture the Tok'ra."

"Ah...yeah," Jack said slowly, not following whatever connection Daniel had just made there. "So I hear." When nothing more came, he offered, "Look, according to Teal'c, this Machello guy was on the run for more than a hundred years. If he didn't make it...I'm sorry to hear that, but it was probably just his time to go."

"I'm not sorry," Daniel said.

Jack felt his eyebrows shoot up.

"Oh, gods. No, I mean, I am, really, I really am," Daniel babbled once he'd heard his own words, "because he didn't deserve to die like..." He sighed, a quick, frustrated sound. "I can't believe I said that. It's just that it was...it was him or Robert, and it was Robert's first. I told him he was wrong, and then he died."

Jack didn't have a clue what was going on there. They hadn't taken the time to ask anyone for specifics about what had happened while they'd been off saving the Tok'ra's asses, and he was starting to think it was something he needed to find out. Whatever the issue was, it probably wasn't about Machello's being dead on its own; they had all seen people die, including Daniel, some of them enemies and some of them friends, but something else must have happened this time. And what was this about Rothman?

"You didn't kill the guy," Jack said, probing.

Daniel made a valiant attempt to shrink into the seat. "You weren't there."

"No, I wasn't, and I don't know what happened, but I know you, Daniel." Besides, someone--Fraiser, Ferretti, the general--would have done something if anyone had acted inappropriately. "I bet I can guess most of it. You were pissed as hell at whatever it was, but you didn't kill him."

"Robert said Machello was in pain. All the time," Daniel said, wrapping his arms around himself. Jack turned the heat up an extra notch. "He'd been tortured. You could tell. Janet said so."

"And he...came to us for help?" Jack said, still confused.

"He had no right," Daniel said vehemently.

"I'm not doubting you," Jack said, not really sure anymore whether Daniel was trying to condemn himself or Machello. Maybe Daniel wasn't certain, either, because his words certainly weren't. "If he had no right, then whatever it was that happened to him isn't on you if you just convinced him of that. Whether or not he was against the Goa'uld..." He trailed off.

Oh. So that where he'd made the connection. Against the Goa'uld, hated by the Goa'uld, and, apparently, not as friendly as he looked--like the Tok'ra might be.

"Ah," he said.

"Yeah," Daniel replied.

"Daniel," Jack said, "you know how I feel about snakes, and even I think we should give these Tok'ra guys a chance. So do Teal'c and Carter. Makepeace was even helping them move to their new home. And even though we're pretty sure they _are_ the good guys, we're not going to be trusting them without being careful. Does that help?"

Daniel was silent for a while, considering. "A little," he allowed finally. "Sam's father really is okay, then. He's not just a host to some..." He waved a hand. "You know."

"They're serious about the host," Jack said again. "You should've seen--there was a spy, and they were in a hurry to escape and still tried to get rid of the Goa'uld without hurting the host."

That had to count for something. Jack still didn't trust all of them--they said that they cared about the host, but that Martouf character was practically the only one who ever spoke instead of his symbiote--but the fact remained that no other Goa'uld he had ever seen before would have even cared to mention trying to save the host when the symbiote was the criminal. Whatever the Tok'ra were, they were different.

Somewhat reassured, Daniel relaxed minutely. "Do you think, maybe...I could meet them next time?"

"I don't see why not, if it's not in the middle of something," Jack said. "In fact, Jacob Carter'll probably be the one who stops by. I'm sure Sam would want to introduce you to her dad."

"What's he like?"

"Jacob?" Jack said. "He's, ah...a...well. You've really gotta meet him for yourself. Trust me on this one. Good man, though."

Daniel turned his head to the side until it was leaning against window.

"Okay?"

"Sam must be happy that her father's all right."

Jack glanced at him again. "Yeah, I think she's very happy," he said, remembering the regretful but pleased expression on the captain's face as her father joined forces with some wise old fart of a symbiote and walked briskly up the ramp and through the Stargate.

"I'm glad," Daniel said, quiet now. Wistful.

"Me too," Jack agreed softly, remembering also the look on Daniel's face when he'd learned _his_ father wouldn't be all right again. "So...let's all take the next day and relax. Celebrate how cool we all are, huh?"

Daniel returned to watching the trees pass them through the window.

Just as Jack rounded the corner into his street, Daniel finally spoke again to say, "Can I go up to the roof later? I mean, do you mind?"

Jack glanced upward at the clear sky and said, "Yeah, sure. Good night for stargazing. But it's the dead of winter, so we shouldn't stay out too long."

"You don't have to stay out," Daniel said. "I know how to use the telescope."

"Are you kidding? We live and breathe Stargate Command and practically never get time to go out and look at the stars. 'Course I want to take a look."

Daniel glanced at him. "Thanks."

Somehow, Carter and Teal'c were already waiting when Jack pulled up next to his house. "How did you get in front of us?" he asked.

"Captain Carter enjoys transportation at great velocities," Teal'c informed them. "The snow does not appear to be a significant deterrent." Carter looked like she was still riding high on the success of their latest mission and the recovery of her father, and she smiled a little smugly at Teal'c's words. Jack would have felt insulted about being beaten to his own home, but he decided he'd rather stay on her good side, particularly since the food was in her car.

"It's cold," Daniel said, shivering in the winter air as he stepped out of the car and reached back in for his backpack.

"Freezing," Carter agreed. "Literally."

"Yeah, and it's getting late," Jack added. He pulled Daniel's coat out when he forgot and draped it around him before locking the car doors behind them. "C'mon, let's get inside. Who's hungry?"


	20. Gods, Part I

**_16 February 1999; SGC, Earth; 1030 hrs_ **

"Close the iris!" Jack called as he backed out of the Stargate and onto the ramp. "Everyone down!"

The iris began to close, and he threw himself to the floor in time to avoid a last energy blast that made it through before it could shut completely. A few thumps sounded against the shield, but the shiny, new titanium-trinium iris held. It was a nice piece of work--Area 51 was good for some things after all. Jack pushed himself to his feet and watched until the wormhole disengaged.

"Colonel?" General Hammond asked.

In answer, Jack turned to Teal'c, who was not-so-gently lifting their prisoner down from over his shoulders and onto a gurney, where Dr. Fraiser and her nurses were already beginning to fuss over him.

"General," he said, "Apophis. Apophis...General Hammond."

Hammond looked down at the Goa'uld who had caused the whole Stargate program to restart, not to mention had tried to attack Earth, and scowled. "We've met."

" _Cal mah,_ " Apophis said weakly. " _Cal mah!_ "

"He is requesting sanctuary," Teal'c explained, his eyes bright with a satisfaction that Jack had to admit was a little frightening.

His gaze snapping up to Jack, Hammond asked cautiously, "Why?"

"I think some rival Goa'uld just kicked his ass," Jack said. Okay, so he was a little satisfied, too, not least because he'd had a hand in bringing the son of a bitch low enough to get his snaky ass kicked.

"There were several other death gliders in pursuit when we took him prisoner, sir," Carter added, her hands still on her weapon, though she wasn't bothering to try looking menacing, the way Teal'c was doing without prompting. Apophis wasn't going anywhere on his own anytime soon.

"I demand sanctuary!" Apophis cried again.

Hammond leaned over the gurney so that his glowering expression was very clear. "You're not in a position to demand anything, sir," he said. "Lock him up."

"Sir, he's badly injured," Fraiser protested, already beginning to set up an IV while a nurse did the same on the other side. "He is not going to be any good to you at all unless we get him to the OR, right now."

Jack glanced up and froze, only vaguely hearing Hammond's response. Makepeace was observing through the control room window, but Daniel had edged in for a look, too, and as Jack watched, he pushed his glasses onto his face and squinted at them, his eyes flicking from SG-1 to the man on the gurney.

_'Apophis?'_ Daniel mouthed incredulously, his eyes pinned on Jack. Jack looked over to see Fraiser's people dragging the Goa'uld away and nodded, some of the triumphant feeling dimming as he remembered just why it was that they hated Apophis so much.

_'Stay there,'_ Jack mouthed back, pointing a finger for emphasis. Daniel crossed his arms, which didn't bode well, but he knew better than to interfere before the situation was secure. The problem in situations like this, though, wasn't whether Daniel knew the rules but rather whether he would respect them.

"We'll debrief at 1100 hours," Hammond said, snapping Jack back to attention.

He checked his watch. That gave them just enough time to change and get dumped into the MRI, then, but not much else. "Yes, sir," Jack said, adding, "General, could we have the SFs make sure nonessential personnel stay out of the infirmary while the prisoner's in there?"

There weren't many non-essential personnel who would be willing--or brazen enough-- to try walking into an infirmary holding Apophis. Hammond looked behind himself in time to see Daniel turn abruptly and walk determinedly out of the control room. He nodded to one of the security team. "Airman?"

"Yes, sir," the man said, then quickly left the room.

"Colonel O'Neill, you'll talk to Apophis once he's awake. Find out what he wants and what he knows."

When Jack turned to his teammates, Teal'c was smiling. And not the friendly, polite face he gave Carter when she babbled about something complicated that no one cared to listen to, but a real, actual smirk of some feeling that probably wasn't completely healthy, but _damn_ if Jack wasn't feeling it, too. "Looks like we caught ourselves a snake," he said.

It was a good day.

XXXXX

**_16 February 1999; SGC, Earth; 1530 hrs_ **

"He says he was running from someone called Sokar," Jack said once he had talked to Apophis and they were gathered around the briefing room. "Oh, and he wants a new host."

"That won't help him," Fraiser said, shaking her head. "The injuries to the host are almost certainly fatal, but the symbiote itself is badly injured, as well. I have no way of treating that."

"Not that we would've given him one either way," he said, wondering why exactly it was that they were worried about treating Apophis, anyway.

"I'm aware of that, sir. I'm just pointing out that Apophis _is_ dying in there, no matter what anyone tries to do about it. I'm not sure anything short of a sarcophagus could save him now."

"And who's Sokar?" Carter asked, turning to Teal'c. "Another System Lord?"

Teal'c inclined his head. "He was once the ruler of the System Lords."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Why is it that every time we meet a new System Lord, he's supposed to be bigger and badder than all the ones we've met before?"

"He is their ruler no longer," Teal'c told him. "An alliance of Goa'uld defeated him many centuries ago. Apophis and Ra were among his conquerors. Apophis himself believed him dead."

_Nasty surprise_ , Jack thought.

"Maybe we should call Dr. Rothman down here," Carter suggested, "in case he or Daniel knows something else about Sokar."

"I'll call Dr. Rothman," General Hammond said, standing to reach for the phone. "I'd like to keep Mr. Jackson out of this if possible, given his history."

"Of course, sir," she said, nodding agreement.

Jack glanced at the monitor that watched Apophis, almost expecting to see Daniel sneaking in to...to do what? Take his revenge on Apophis?

Not that Daniel would do anything drastic. Probably. Still, while Jack thought Daniel had gotten over his parents' deaths as much as someone _could_ get over something like that, dealing with grief wasn't the same as coming face-to-face with the murderer. Daniel's opinions on the Goa'uld in general ranged from 'evil' to 'reviled,' but Apophis was personal, a class of his own. And then there were Skaara and Sha'uri and Shifu, added to the attacks on both Earth and Abydos, and damn, there were more than just a few reasons to keep Daniel away from their prisoner.

On the monitor, Dr. Fraiser opened the door to step out of the isolation room, and Jack could glimpse a familiar, sullen figure just outside in the hallway.

"Daniel's planted himself right outside the isolation room," Jack told his team as the general called Rothman. "I walked past him on my way in and out, and he's still there. Wouldn't move. He's not really trying to get in, even. I don't know what he's waiting for."

"He is waiting for Apophis to die," Teal'c suggested matter-of-factly. "As are we." Carter gave him a look that wasn't shocked so much as disturbed, but Rothman walked in before she could say anything in return.

"You, uh, asked about Sokar?" Rothman said as soon as he was in earshot.

"Heard of him?" Jack said.

"Yeah, sure. Sokar represented the act of separating the...the soul from the body, sort of, in the simplest terms. He was sometimes associated with Osiris, a god of death, especially in later periods."

Apophis was literally being chased by Death. Now _that_ was a little funny. "So, he was their Grim Reaper."

"Uh...no. Well, kind of...but not with a sinister connotation. It was like...the releasing of the soul after death, a necessary part of the process. I mean, there were periods during which he was feared more than revered, like any deity, but without knowing more of the situation, it's hard to say just what this Goa'uld is like."

"I have an idea," Jack said. "The Goa'uld kills a bunch of people and then says their god 'released their souls.'"

Rothman considered, then conceded, "Yeah, that's probably it in this case."

"And last time, it took an entire Goa'uld alliance to bring him down?" Hammond said.

"Indeed," Teal'c confirmed.

"What does that mean for us now?"

_"Unscheduled off-world activation!"_ Harriman called through the PA.

"Ah, geez," Jack groaned, then rose and led the way out to watch the Stargate.

XXXXX

By the time SG-1, Rothman, and Hammond walked back into the briefing room with the Tok'ra Martouf in tow, Daniel was waiting there for them, his arms folded over his chest. "Apophis is awake again," he told them, his voice toneless and his whole bearing stiff and unmoving, completely still the way Jack sometimes wished he would just _stand still and stop fidgeting for two minutes, kid_ , except that now, it was getting disconcerting.

"What were you doing in his room?" Jack demanded as the Tok'ra sat.

"I wasn't in his room. I was outside, as before, but I can still hear." Daniel's arms curled tighter. "He has been calling for his queen."

And Daniel should be mad now, or freaked, or vengefully happy or something, not standing still and speaking in English so careful it was like the way he'd been when he'd first arrived on Earth, before he'd decided it was okay to talk faster than other people could hear and understand.

"You have captured Apophis's mate, also?" Martouf asked with increased interest, looking to Carter more than to Jack or Hammond. "Perhaps Sokar--"

"No," Carter answered. "We have no more idea where Amaunet is than Apophis does. He must be getting delirious if he thinks otherwise."

"That was my point," Daniel said. "He's quickly becoming incoherent."

"Daniel, uh, why don't you wait for me in the office," Rothman said. Jack suppressed a wince, knowing there was going to be an argument but really hoping it wouldn't happen now...

"I just want to tell you that if you're looking for information from Apophis, General, you should hurry before he loses what's left of his mind," Daniel said.

"No," Martouf said. "You must return Apophis to that planet immediately."

Jack felt his eyebrows shoot up. _Hell, no._

"Thank you, Mr. Jackson," the general said. "Wait outside."

Daniel impossibly stiffened even more, looking from the Tok'ra to Teal'c and then to Jack and Hammond. Usually, he listened when it was the general speaking, but this time it took another sharp command from Teal'c before he turned and walked out. Rothman winced, looking worried, then glanced at Jack and slowly sat down as well. Jack suspected that it hadn't been any order that convinced Daniel to leave, but rather the gleeful look on Teal'c's face that assured everyone that Apophis wouldn't be getting off easily if he had anything to say about it, and that... _that_ was a sobering thought.

When Daniel was out of sight, Hammond said, "He's not wrong. There _is_ quite a bit of information we could get from Apophis while he's in our custody."

"Our operatives aboard Sokar's vessel witnessed you leave the crash site and enter the Stargate," Martouf argued reasonably. "There is no doubt Sokar also knows that Apophis is in your hands. If not Sokar, then there are many other Goa'uld who would readily attack Earth to retrieve Apophis."

"We need to know what would happen if we turned him over," Hammond countered.

Martouf turned his head slightly, a wrinkle appearing between his brows as he looked from one face to another in confusion. "What does it matter to you? He is your enemy."

"Just answer the question," Jack said.

"He will likely be executed," Martouf said.

"Eventually," Carter added, looking haunted, and Jack remembered what she had said about being tortured slowly toward death as Jolinar. "Right?"

"Yes, but...surely it is a fate he justly deserves."

Hammond folded his hands on the table. "I'm afraid we can't let him go just yet. In the short time he has remaining, we may yet learn information that could help us defend ourselves."

Martouf's head lowered, and when it lifted again, his eyes glowed.

"He has taken advantage of your weakness," Lantash said, his voice almost a growl compared to Martouf's milder demeanor.

Carter looked taken aback at the sudden shift, but she retorted, "We don't consider what we did a sign of weakness."

"Then you are fools," Lantash retorted harshly, apparently not as indulgent of her silly Tau'ri ways as his host was. "You have tipped the balance of power among the Goa'uld and, in doing so, entered a battle that you are ill-equipped to fight. Turn him over to Sokar now, and you might be spared."

Jack crossed his arms. "We went through a lot of trouble to bring Apophis low enough to get snatched up by Sokar. We didn't do it to help Sokar pick up where Apophis left off."

"Why don't you comprehend the danger you are in?" Lantash barked. "The Tok'ra cannot defend you from the Goa'uld, and you cannot expect us to."

"We don't," Jack snapped. He wasn't expecting much of _anything_ from the Tok'ra right now, much less anything helpful.

The Tok'ra's head dipped again, and Martouf resurfaced, looking a little embarrassed at the outburst. "Forgive Lantash. He is very passionate. We would not force you to take action, but if we cannot convince you of the danger...may we see him?"

When they arrived at where Apophis was being kept, Daniel was still in front of the isolation room, leaning against the opposite wall and staring at the door that separated him from Apophis. "Daniel," Jack sighed.

"I haven't gone in," he answered, far too evenly for Jack's liking.

Keeping an eye on him, Jack nodded at the SF standing on guard. The door was held open, and Carter entered the ward first, followed by Martouf and Teal'c. As Jack tried to enter, too, Daniel moved to block his path. "Apophis has to know where Skaara is," he said in a low voice, and up close, Jack could see the tightness around his eyes, the way he was clenching his fists so hard that his fingers would be aching later. "You have to ask him, Jack."

"Daniel," Jack said again.

" _Amaunet!_ " Apophis cried from inside the isolation unit. " _Kel Amaunet? Amaunet, tal ma!_ "

Daniel inhaled sharply.

Rothman eyed him uneasily and told Jack, "You don't need me in there, Colonel. It's getting a little crowded--why don't I stay out here."

Jack nodded and began to feel a little less satisfied about their catch. _Should've shot him when we found him_ , he thought, then firmly moved Daniel aside and walked past them, hoping their prisoner was almost dead.

"Apophis," Martouf was saying when he reached the Goa'uld's bedside. "Hear me."

" _Amaunet_ ," Apophis moaned. " _Tal ma..._ "

"What's he saying?" Jack asked.

Martouf glanced at him. "He is calling for his love."

"His love," Jack scoffed. Martouf gave him an intense stare that might have been a glare if Martouf hadn't already established himself as the calm one in the host/symbiote relationship. What? Apophis was a snake. As if that bastard loved anything except his power.

Carter, he noticed, fidgeted, glanced at Martouf, and then looked away instead of adding her own comment. "We won't get anything lucid from him in this condition, sir," she observed instead, refocusing on the issue at hand.

"I'll give him some morphine," Fraiser said, reaching for a syringe.

" _Amaunet_ ," Apophis said again, almost a whisper, clearly fading.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, pupils blown wide, his expression one of terror even more than of pain. " _Sidjemu-wi. Sidjemu-wi!_ "

Jack straightened. "That's a...human voice."

" _Shi-rawh-tai,_ " the man on the bed called.

"What's he saying?"

From the door Rothman called, "That's a dialect of Ancient Egyptian, Colonel, not Goa'uld."

"It is a human slave language," Martouf added.

"Oh, God," Carter breathed. "Is that the host?"

" _Shi-rawh-tai!_ "

If Carter had been badly shaken after a few days as a host to a not-really-bad symbiote... ' _Oh, God'_ was right. How long had this guy been host to Apophis?

Jack hurriedly beckoned to Rothman. "Talk to him--say something."

"Wh--I...I don't..." Rothman stammered. He took a few steps into the isolation room, and Jack could now see clearly that Daniel was still standing there, and if he had looked upset before to hear his parents' murderer calling for the lover who had taken over his sister, that was nothing compared to the expression on his face now. "I don't know what to say, Colonel; I mean, what do you say to someone who..."

Apophis and his host passed out. Jack was relieved, and then ashamed to realize it was mostly because that made it easier for them, not just for the man on the table.

" _Ay naturu_ ," Daniel's voice came from where he stood at the door, staring at Apophis and not seeming to notice the SFs who were carefully blocking his way.

"He's not going to be awake for a while," Fraiser pointed out. "Everyone give me some space, please."

Martouf was discussing something with Carter as they walked out, so Jack stayed just long enough to make sure Teal'c was actually walking away from Apophis and then stepped out in time to see Daniel lean back against the wall. "He's out cold for now," Jack said to Rothman. "If he wakes up--"

"He's scared," Daniel murmured. "Apophis has probably never let him take control over his own body before. For...for _thousands_ of years." He shuddered. " _Gods_ , can you imagine?"

"Daniel," Jack warned, "I don't want you going in there."

"What if he wakes up again?"

"We'll talk to him. I'll try to ask about Skaara, if I can."

"And if it's the host?" Daniel said. "He's scared, Jack. He's _dying_."

"I hate to say it," Jack pointed out, "but dying is probably a kindness, kid."

"Not like this," Daniel insisted, shaking his head fiercely, his façade of composure fading into something bordering on panic. "Not somewhere he doesn't recognize, thousands of, of...miles or planets away from his home, where no one can take his name and...Jack, he's not...the host is innocent. At least let me talk to him. Or Robert, or _someone_. You can't let him die like this."

An alarm sounded. _"Unscheduled off-world activation!"_

"Dammit," Jack swore.

"Go, Colonel," Rothman said. "We'll be in our office."

"But Robert," Daniel started. "We can't just leave him--"

"I said, let's _go_ ," Rothman ordered, snapping at Daniel like a boss in charge instead of a senior colleague for perhaps the first time Jack could remember seeing. "They'll get us if they need us."

And because Daniel had been trained over the last couple of years to respond to direct orders from a superior--whether or not he chose to obey--and because people defaulted to conditioning in situations of extreme stress, he clenched his fists in frustration and looked like he wanted to argue again but instead turned toward the elevator. Jack gave Rothman a grateful nod and hurried to the control room, just in time to hear Sokar's ultimatum.

XXXXX

**_16 February 1999; SGC, Earth; 1900 hrs_ **

The archaeology office rarely felt awkward. Boring, sure, and often buzzing with mutters in various incomprehensible languages, but not awkward. Rothman was clicking through something on his computer, but Jack thought he could be pretty sure Daniel wasn't actually reading the book on his desk, since he wasn't even looking at it. Rothman flicked occasional glances toward Daniel, who didn't seem to notice, and there was none of the usual debate or casual discussion floating across the space between them.

The office was nice and cool, though, which was, in itself, a huge improvement over how it was downstairs. How the hell Sokar expected them to send Apophis back without being able to dial out was beyond him, but hey, who ever said the Goa'uld were reasonable?

When they didn't seem to have noticed his approach, Jack paused at the door and cleared his throat. Two pairs of eyes snapped immediately to him.

"The President's ordered all medical treatment to stop," Jack said, knowing he didn't need to clarify that he was talking about Apophis. "We're sending him back."

"You're sending him back," Daniel repeated.

Jack watched him pick up a pen, uncap it, and then cap it again and roll it restlessly between his fingers. Uncap, cap, uncap... "Yeah. We can't take the safety risk of keeping him here."

"You're sending him back to be tortured to death by Sokar," Daniel said. Rothman grimaced and scratched his head, dividing his attention between the two of them.

"Not exactly," Jack said. "We expect he'll die soon, here, before he goes back." Daniel put the pen down and went back to staring at the desk. "In the meantime, I just wanted to tell you both to stay away from the 'gate room no matter what. Sokar's been knocking at our door."

' _Knocking_ ' wasn't really the right word. ' _Blasting_ ' was more like it, and unless Carter pulled something miraculous out of her sleeve, the iris would melt within the hour, and the base would be swarming with Sokar's Jaffa.

"Someone needs to say the words for him," Daniel said out of the blue.

Jack frowned. "What?"

"Funeral rites," Rothman said. "For the host."

Looking from one to the other, not sure if they thought he was insane or if he thought _they_ were insane, Jack said, "There's not much time. Sokar means business."

"I don't need much time," Daniel said. "It won't take long. Nothing at all compared to how long that man has carried Apophis, Jack."

Suddenly, Jack felt the way he had in those first days of the Stargate Program, when Daniel had told Teal'c that it wasn't his fault, that the Jaffa were slaves to a false god, even as he had cringed from the man who had kidnapped him. "And you want to do that for him?"

"I have seen the rites performed many times on Abydos," Daniel said, folding his hands under his arms like he thought he could hide how nervous he was. "If he only has a short time left, I think we should make him as comfortable as we can. He has suffered enough."

Whether or not Daniel could say the words wasn't the issue. Whether he could do it to Apophis's face...

"I think we should," Rothman added.

Jack gave him an incredulous look, tilting his head a scant inch toward Daniel as he said, "Dr. Rothman, I don't think that's a good idea." Daniel had unfolded his arms and was focused intently on fiddling with his damn pen again and didn't seem to notice the unspoken words.

But Rothman was quite possibly an idiot, despite his degree that said otherwise, and said, "Colonel, I agree with Daniel on this."

Then Daniel chose that moment to look up at him, and saying ' _no'_ to him right now would only mean ' _I don't think you're strong enough for this,_ ' and maybe Jack wasn't sure he was, but...

Hell. Chances were Sokar would overrun this base in about a half an hour, anyway, if that iris didn't hold against his attack, and if that happened, those who weren't killed right away would get taken out by the self-destruct. They might as well get _someone's_ last rites done, and if it would make Daniel happier, why the hell not.

Jack sighed. "I'm going with you," he said finally. At this point, he'd only be in the way in the control room, anyway. He wasn't the only one who knew how to set the self-destruct. "If it's Apophis who's in control, you're to stay away from him." Not that the dying man strapped to a bed could actually do very much, but the worst attacks weren't always the physical ones.

Rothman stood and picked up an odd little statue, explaining, clearly for Jack's benefit, "This is a funerary statue." He lifted it, looking unsure whether to hold onto it or hand it over. "Look, I can do the rites for him, Daniel."

"I'll do it." Daniel reached out and took it, then hesitated. "Would you come with me, though?" he asked, not meeting Rothman's eyes. "Just in case...in case the Egyptian way is not the same as the Abydonian way. Or something."

"Yeah," the archaeologist said immediately. "Sure."

Jack decided Rothman was only a little bit of an idiot.

...x...

Teal'c was leaning over Apophis when they arrived. Jack couldn't hear what the Jaffa was saying, but he thought he could make a pretty good guess when Apophis screamed, " _Shol'va, kree!_ "

Jack caught the eye of a nurse standing uncertainly at the edge of the room and told her, "Call us if the host surfaces."

She bit her lip, staring at Teal'c's taunting smile, and said, "Yes, sir."

"Close the door," Jack ordered the airman outside, partly because he didn't want either Daniel or Dr. Rothman actually facing Apophis and mostly because he didn't want Daniel to see just how one of his friends and mentors was handling the situation. Jack didn't really blame Teal'c, and he knew Fraiser would step in if Teal'c went as far as physically hurting the Goa'uld, but it wasn't really something Daniel should be emulating, either. "Apophis's control has been kind of on and off," he explained to them. "We'll wait until the host comes back."

"How long will he survive?" Daniel asked. "I thought you said Sokar was becoming impatient."

"And how are we even in contact with Sokar, anyway?" Rothman added.

"Sokar's sent a fancy transmission through the wormhole," Jack said. "Says he'll kill us all if we don't give Apophis back."

"And that's why we're handing him over," Daniel said flatly.

Jack stuck his hands in his pockets and bit back his irritation at the implication that they were doing this just because it was easier, or without thinking about what it meant for the person getting handed over. "Not to alarm you guys or anything, but we're getting shot at through the wormhole by a particle beam, and it's getting awfully hot down in the 'gate room. It's all they can do to keep the iris from melting and keep everyone from cooking alive until we can get Sokar to take a break from trying to kill us."

Rothman blinked. "Uh...he's trying to roast us to death?" He adjusted his jacket nervously. "Is it getting hot around here?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "That's your imagination, Doctor. And the iris will probably give before you start feeling the heat from here." Because, of course, that would be _so_ much better.

"Maybe I'm wrong," the archaeologist pressed, "but if he's sending a particle beam through at us, how are _we_ supposed to send anything to _him_?"

"You know, oddly enough, we did notice that little problem." Jack suspected Sokar wouldn't be heartbroken to lose Apophis as his prize if he managed to invade Earth instead.

"Well, that's true in reverse, too--Sokar can't keep attacking us if _we_ dial out to him," Daniel said.

"Only if he disengages first," Rothman pointed out unhappily, "which I'm guessing he won't."

"It doesn't even matter if he does," Jack said, seeing no reason to hide it now that their chances for survival were dwindling with every minute Sokar kept up his attack. "The wormhole already closed once, just before I went to find you two, and he just redialed and started it all again."

Daniel and Rothman looked at each other. Jack imagined they were trying to will a theory into being by the force of their combined brainwaves. "Maybe he stopped because there was a time limit for wormholes to be held open," Rothman suggested. "It needs too much power or something."

"Yeah, that's what Carter said when Sokar's wormhole closed, but by then it was too late to try dialing before he dialed in again--a lot faster than we could do anything about it. He stopped after thirty-eight minutes last time, so assuming that's the limit, we've probably got another good...more than twenty minutes before we can try again." He decided not to mention that Carter thought it would be their first and only shot, because the iris wouldn't hold another thirty-eight minutes if they failed this time.

"Did anyone try to talk to him?" Daniel asked. "By...radio or something. Radio transmissions can go both ways through a wormhole."

Jack paused for a second, wondering why no one had mentioned that before, but then shook his head. "He's shooting a particle beam at us, kid. I'm not sure diplomacy's the answer this time."

"Well, it might work. It depends on how badly he wants Apophis," Rothman said. "Offer him Apophis. Threaten him with the auto-destruct if he gets through the iris."

"Yes, and if he's been hiding so long, he can't afford to suffer that much damage to his army," Daniel agreed. "Tell him he doesn't want to start fighting on another front with the Tau'ri, and if we auto-destruct, we'll take Apophis with us."

"You might as well try, and if it doesn't work, just try dialing out after thirty-eight minutes like you were going to do anyway. If he stops long enough for us to establish a wormhole, it'll buy us some time, at least. Or, you know," Rothman added pointedly, "we could just wait until we all start to bake in our juices."

Jack opened his mouth to object before realizing it wasn't an unreasonable idea. "Huh," he said.

The door opened. Teal'c walked out first to reveal the nurse behind him. "Sir?" she said. "I think...I'm not sure if that's the host, but..."

" _Sidjemu-wi!_ "

Daniel craned his head over the nurse's shoulder and called back, " _Khanmis, sidjemu-tje!_ Jack, it's him. He keeps asking for someone to hear him." Jack nodded at the men blocking the door, and Daniel squeezed past them to hurry to Apophis's bedside.

"Teal'c," Jack said, "go to the control room and tell them to try sending a message to Sokar by radio transmission. Call his bluff. Tell him that he might beat us, but not without hurting himself a lot, and we'll surrender Apophis if he'll stop his attack. The second we get a chance, dial out and keep the wormhole open until we can send Apophis through." Teal'c scowled back into the room, where Daniel was bending low over the bed, and Jack added, " _Now_ , Teal'c. It won't be long before he's dead."

Teal'c inclined his head slightly and turned toward the control room.

Jack held out a hand to stop Rothman before the man could enter and, quietly, asked, "Why the hell are you behind this? Do you not understand Daniel's history with Apophis?"

Rothman glanced once inside and dropped his voice, too. "Yeah, I get it. Do _you_ understand how important this is to him?"

"Look, fine, he was raised that way, whatever. But I honestly don't think he believes in--"

"This isn't about that," Rothman said. "Daniel _believes_ that man deserves a little...comfort before his death after millennia of torture, and so do I. You didn't see how upset he was upstairs; if I didn't think he needed this, I would've come here and done the rites myself. So, uh...are we leaving him alone in there or what?"

Jack looked to where Daniel was placing the statue down on the bed, then nodded curtly. "Fine."

Apophis's host was staring at Daniel when they went inside, words tumbling out now with a sort of desperation as the Abydon listened.

"What are they saying?" Jack asked quietly. Daniel glanced up, but Rothman began explain quietly, so he turned back to the host.

"It's, uh...introductions, more or less. His name is Khotep; he's was a scribe at the temple of Amun at Karnak. And now..." The archaeologist winced. "He says that it's been an unending nightmare, and he hoped to see his wife and children when he awoke."

"But now he awakens only to...die again," Daniel finished as the host trailed off. Jack suppressed a grimace and forced his gaze to remain steady when Daniel looked up at him, then back down.

The clicking of Fraiser's shoes on the floor announced her arrival, but even that seemed quiet and muted. She glanced up at Jack, taking in the scene, then focused back on Apophis's host.

Daniel licked his lips. " _Ar ko-me di-ya tuw qu-ris yam-yakh-cle,_ " he said softly, the hard words surprisingly gentle and flowing.

Jack realized with a start that he had almost never heard Daniel speak his native tongue aloud since he'd arrived on Earth, or at least not like this, rhythmic and almost song-like despite the harsh sounds of the words. It was almost like that Goa'uld lullaby he used to say to Shifu, and Jack recognized this was something similar, another lullaby but for a different sort of sleep. Then he wondered just how important customs like this were to Abydons, how many times Daniel had heard this ritual, and what he had thought of being trapped on Earth last year instead of beside his parents' grave. Sometimes, Jack knew, it wasn't just about souls and faiths and afterlives, but about conclusions.

"He said that we'll do the rites," Rothman was saying.

The host--the scribe--nodded very slightly. Daniel straightened, but before he could start, the scribe's body jerked once, and his eyes glowed bright.

"Help me," Apophis begged.

Daniel's expression darkened, the transformation so sudden that Jack didn't have time to speak at all before Daniel leaned over Apophis and answered with a cold, "Never. _Shal nok, orak_."

Apophis's eyes fixed on him, burning with desperate intensity. "I know you. I once thought you could be host to my son." Daniel's face twisted with revulsion.

"Not a chance," Jack said sharply, circling around to the other side of the bed so he could grab Daniel and pull him out before this got any uglier, as if it possibly could. "No host."

"Dan'yel," Apophis said hoarsely. "Brother to my son, Klorel."

"Where is he?" Daniel said, his arm stiff, resisting Jack's attempts to move him away. Despite the waning light in Apophis's eyes, he leaned close again to say, "Tell me. Where is Skaara?"

Apophis drew in several ragged breaths. "I am afraid," the Goa'uld whispered, his eyes glowing again before they began to dim. Jack still had a hand on Daniel's shoulder, so he felt the flinch when the alarm on one of the monitors began to screech.

"Hold it," Fraiser said sharply, peering at the screen. She pulled her hands out of her pockets and reached toward the patient, clearly itching to do something, but, bound by her orders, she settled with laying a gentle hand on the dying man's face.

Apophis gasped once, and then--

"The Goa'uld is dead," Fraiser said, watching the monitor, "but...the host is still alive."

The scribe turned his head slowly until his dull eyes faced them.

Daniel seemed frozen. He stared at a point somewhere between the scribe and the statue, blinking.

Rothman stepped closer to the bed and instructed, "Translate for me, Daniel, all right?"

Daniel nodded jerkily and, though Jack could still see the tension in his body, he calmed a little with a task to perform. He didn't take his eyes from the scribe as Rothman started, his words lacking the flowing quality that Daniel's had, but solid and sure nonetheless. " _Anen-yak ipat su-wee-tai softou."_

"Your soul will be returned to the temple of Karnak with honor," Daniel said.

" _Miy-yak hee-ma-ta mai-si-tak. Hiy-yak han-vy-sun, hei-hu hei-hu._ "

Jack felt another tiny flinch under his hand, and then Daniel moved a step away from him and said steadily, "You will see your wife and children again and rejoice with them forever."

Rothman nodded. " _Yet-yau tau-ti ki-pum ni fadet u-ra-eyu. In yaf ki-yak a ku-mayi._ "

Daniel moved the statue into the scribe's line of sight. "This funerary statue will take your last breath and carry your soul back to Egypt."

As if he had been waiting for the words, the scribe rolled his head toward the statue. His eyes were bright--not with unnatural, Goa'uld light, but with pain and emotion--and Jack couldn't tell whether he was staring at the statue or at the person holding it. Daniel stepped back to let the scribe see the figure that was to take his soul.

The scribe's eyes glazed over. He took a final, rattling gasp.

The alarm on the second monitor sounded, shrill and grating in the silence. Fraiser reached up quietly and turned it off. To Jack's surprise, it was Daniel who gently closed the man's eyes and drew the edge of the sheet over his face, then lowered himself to his knees at the bedside.

"Uh," Rothman said. "What are you--"

"Give me a couple of minutes," Daniel said, his voice more confident now and distracted in the way that meant he wasn't waiting for an answer and was going to take the couple of minutes whether they were given to him or not. His hand was steady now, though, as he held it up to tell them to wait.

Jack stared at him, incredulous. This time, Rothman and Dr. Fraiser did as well, because that was the kind of thing people said when a loved one died and they needed a little more time to grieve, not what people were supposed to say when they'd just finished a ritual for a stranger. Not just any stranger, either, but a man whose face Jack knew for a fact had featured in Daniel's nightmares for months and maybe still did.

Teal'c appeared suddenly in the doorway. "Sokar has ceased his attack long enough for us to create an outgoing wormhole. We must..." He stopped.

This had been a mistake.

"Daniel," Jack started carefully, "it's--"

"One minute," Daniel said again. "We promised him dignity."

Jack glanced at Rothman, who also seemed lost. Obviously, this hadn't been part of the plan. Teal'c's eyes held a sort of horrified confusion. He reached out and tugged the corner of the shroud off, as if to see just whose body his _chal'ti_ was kneeling to. Daniel watched him in return but didn't move to explain or stop him. The Jaffa's expression stiffened as he saw his former master's face, but the triumph that Jack had been expecting to see there was almost lost in a wave of uncertainty.

Fraiser firmly took the sheet from Teal'c and covered the face again. Teal'c moved away and let her.

" _Didu'we hur tapai Khotep sesh n'ipat_ ," Daniel said, his head lowered as if in prayer.

"He says...that he's speaking on behalf of the scribe of the temple of Karnak," Rothman said, blinking.

" _Ne didu'we gurakh, ne ir iwe_."

Rothman wrinkled his forehead. "I think this is part of the soul's judgment before the gods of the dead. And it's Nagadan Abydonian, not the scribe's dialect. This must be..."

" _Anakh sapu shure'i seidei nu'tei yurinaf shesheru'nu._ "

"...adapted from the Abydonian funeral ceremony. 'I have spoken no lies; I have done no misdeeds. I was once possessed by a, uh...a demon...'"

The sound of boots at the doorway made Jack look up to see General Hammond beginning to walk in, followed by Carter and Martouf. "The wormhole is--" He broke off, his expression morphing into surprise as Daniel continued his recital.

" _Yuwa yu seidei pro'if manuten na'neiwei yasfei_."

"It's like...last rites, sir," Rothman explained quietly. Carter's eyes were wide, and then she lowered them slightly, though Jack couldn't have said whether it was in respect or confusion. Martouf was standing with his mouth slightly open, his expression uncomprehending, and for some reason, all Jack could think of at the moment was that he would have thought the guy would have just a little more sympathy for the host.

Ignoring them, Daniel continued to stare blankly at the covering over the scribe, as if he could see through it to the body beneath, and finished, " _Di'ya piratei asaku yeru_."

After a pause, he rose to his feet, raised his hands before himself in the formal Abydonian gesture, and bowed to the scribe's body. Without another word and without acknowledging any of the new arrivals in the room, he walked away toward the door.

"Should, uh...?" Rothman said, jerking his head toward Daniel.

Daniel paused at the door and said, "You should take care of the body." He walked out and didn't look back.

The general watched him leave, then asked sharply, "Was that...?"

"It's practically out of the Book of the Dead," Rothman answered. "He was speaking for the host's soul, asking the gods to find him clean of evil, now that he is no longer possessed by the demon who used him to commit crimes."

"I shouldn't've let him come in here," Jack said stepping back to give some distance as Fraiser and a nurse began to undo the straps that held the scribe's body to the bed. Teal'c stepped forward to help. Fraiser looked up at him suspiciously, but the Jaffa only nodded solemnly and began to wrap the body respectfully in the shroud himself.

Rothman shook his head, looking a little unsettled himself. "He would've felt worse if we let the host die without at least...you know...or I wouldn't've even suggested letting him come and do this. It really was very important to him."

Still not convinced, Jack crossed his arms. "Maybe." And maybe this was one of the times _they_ should have decided what was best for the fifteen-year-old in their charge.

Hammond sighed, looking in the direction Daniel had gone. "The wormhole won't stay open forever," he said as Teal'c easily lifted the scribe's covered body in his arms. "But afterward, once this is over, I'd appreciate it if one of you could..."

"Got it, sir," Jack said.

XXXXX

**_16 February 1999; SGC, Earth; 2100 hrs_ **

Jack stopped outside Daniel's quarters. He reached for the doorknob, then stopped and rapped his knuckles twice against the closed door instead. When no one answered, he slowly swung the door open.

The lights were on. Daniel sat at one end of his bed, dressed as if about to go to sleep, despite the relatively early hour. He was reading something, sitting on top of his pillow, and didn't look up as he said, "I thought a closed door meant not to enter without permission."

"Well, it wasn't locked," Jack said.

He looked around the interior, noting how different it was from Daniel's room in Jack's house. That room was...not neat so much as bare, with a few sets of civilian clothes in the closet and not much else besides the things Daniel carried around with him between base and house. Jack rarely had cause to enter Daniel's quarters here at the SGC, but it was where he kept his slowly accumulated possessions and was, if not quite messy, then at least carelessly lived-in. A BDU jacket was slung casually over the back of a chair, and one shoe lay on its side while its partner was barely visible from under the bed. The bed was made, barely, with a few folders and notebooks tossed onto the covers at the foot of the bed and a set of dog tags hanging from the bedpost.

The dresser's surface was being used as a sort of bookshelf, not for textbooks or dictionaries, but rather for what looked like a collection of haphazardly-stacked second-hand literature. There was an old copy of _Hamlet_ on top with a bookmark inside, and when Jack lifted the frayed cover, he found 'S. CARTER' printed in black pen. Rothman's name was on the side of some other book that appeared to be written in Greek. Hagman's name was on a copy of something in Cyrillic writing, though there was a dictionary next to that one.

Daniel stayed where he was seated and watched him move through the room, not commenting until Jack saw a small, closed box sitting separate from all the rest.

"Don't," Daniel said then. There were journals on top of the box, and Claire Jackson's clay sculpture of Ra stood next to it; Jack could guess what kind of things were probably in it, and he didn't touch it. "Why did you knock if you were going to come in anyway?"

"To...be polite," Jack said.

Daniel frowned at him. "Right."

Jack sat down on the edge of Daniel's bed and turned to look at him, focusing in on the binder on his legs. "What are you doing?"

"Is there a problem?"

Swallowing a sarcastic reply on the tip of his tongue, Jack said instead, "Just wondering. That's, ah, where you store all your articles from the archaeology journals, isn't it?"

Daniel shrugged and shut the binder, bringing his knees toward himself so that the cover was pressed against his chest. "I didn't realize you paid any attention to that kind of thing. Academic journals."

There was a hint of challenge to the words, phrased and said so that it wasn't really an insult but could be taken as one if he so chose. "I don't," Jack said, "but the binder says ' _Arch. Journals_ ,' and it's in your chicken scratch."

"If you can see that, then you didn't really need to ask," he reasoned, still calm, though his fingers tightened possessively on the binder. Daniel was rarely calm when he was all right--excited, curious, amused, nervous, annoyed, sullen...that was fine. Calm...not so fine, especially when his knuckles were turning white from how hard he was gripping the damn binder. "Is there a problem, Jack?" he repeated.

"I don't know," Jack said. "You tell me."

"Then, no."

Okay, so that didn't work the way he'd been going for. "Do you want--"

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"What were you going to say?"

Jack bit the inside of his cheek, because, okay, he didn't really know. "What are you doing, Daniel?" he said again.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Reading an article," he said, like he didn't realize Jack wasn't just talking about what damned article he was reading, even though of course he realized it; playing with words was his specialty. "And this is my room. What are _you_ doing here?"

"You did a brave thing today," Jack tried.

Daniel's lips pressed together into a thin line. Seeing a flicker of irritation in his eyes, Jack started to speak, then hesitated, not sure whether he should be trying to offer comfort or trying to goad Daniel into shattering the blank expression that had to be hiding a lot of not-blank thoughts.

Before he could decide on a course of action, Daniel said, "I hope that people here don't think it strange to try to give an innocent person some comfort in the moment of his death."

Jack suppressed a flicker of annoyance himself. "You know that's not--"

"Then what did you mean?" Daniel interrupted sharply.

"I meant that it wasn't an easy thing to do, and you've got a right to be a little...confused."

"Do I have the right not to be confused, as well?"

Jack really wished he were a more articulate man as he said, "You have a right to feel whatever you want to feel."

Daniel nodded. "Seriously, Jack, did you need something?"

The problem about trying to tread carefully around a subject was that it was so easy to let the whole conversation descend into a battle of words and semantics, and Jack remembered how Daniel had tried--with no small amount of success--to talk circles around him even before he'd gotten used to speaking English all the time. And by now, somewhere along the way, Daniel had learned the art of asking questions with no good answers until the conversation was firmly in his control, and _this_ conversation was quickly headed that way, too.

"Rothman's worried," Jack said, knowing it was the wrong thing to say even as he said it.

"About what?"

"He...dammit, Daniel. You know what I mean."

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I see him, then," Daniel said, neutrally but with an edge. "I'm just trying to read."

"Daniel--"

"Jack, I'm off-duty," Daniel interrupted. "So are you. So is Robert and almost anyone else who might need me for anything. Unless you're looking for something, I would really like to finish this article. You might want to check on how Teal'c is dealing with Apophis's death."

Jack sighed in frustration, because he'd tried that, too. Teal'c was refusing to come out of his room, and Carter was working in her lab and babbling about particle beam technology anytime someone mentioned the word 'host.' And he'd held off and given Daniel space for an hour, just to let things cool off or...or something, and it was looking not-really-okay to him. "Well, then...just let me know when you're ready to get off this base."

"You don't have to wait for me, Jack. I have some notes I'd like to finish tonight."

"Well, I'm not leaving you here on your own."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "What exactly is it that you think I'll do on my own that's different from any other night?"

"Read your eyes to dea--" Jack broke off.

Daniel twitched slightly, but he said, "Unless I've done something wrong, there's no reason I shouldn't be allowed to remain here and read if I want. I mean, is there?"

And there it was--whatever Jack tried to do now to make him talk or make sure he didn't spend the night brooding by himself over an archaeology article would be thrown back like it was meant as a punishment. "You want me to go away?" he said finally.

Daniel tapped a finger lightly against the edge of his binder. "Please."

Jack stood, knowing he was literally hovering over Daniel now but not wanting to leave him here when he was...something. Upset or...whatever he was. It was unnerving not to be able to tell. "Rothman's not the only one who's worried," he said instead of leaving.

"Daniel--"

"Jack--"

The words tripped over each other, and both stopped. "You first," Jack said.

There was another long pause. "You should go home," Daniel finally said. "It's late."

"Well, nah, it's not that late," Jack replied, then lied, "I was going to stick around base for a while, anyway."

"No, you weren't," Daniel said, because they knew each other too well for that by now.

"Just to make sure Sokar's not coming back."

"Do you think Sokar's coming back?"

With a dead Apophis to revive and torture to death over and over...probably not. "Never hurts to be careful."

"Jack, just. Go home."

"If you're allowed to stay here and...read, then I can stick around, too."

Daniel stretched his legs out in the place that Jack had vacated and said, "Then please close the door on your way out."

When Jack pulled the door open, he looked back once to see Daniel back to reading. All of a sudden, he noticed Daniel wasn't wearing his glasses and was actually staring at a point just beyond the binder, and, therefore, probably not actually reading the tiny print in those journals. Blue eyes came up again, asking him what he was still doing there in the doorway.

With a sigh, Jack quietly closed the door behind him and moved down the hall to Teal'c's room.

This time, his knock was answered by a forceful, "Do not enter."

Jack grimaced but backed off. He looked downward, imagining he could see Carter through the floor as she typed her way through a gazillion projects, and resigned himself to a long night of checking on one and then the other and then the other. He wandered toward his own office to hole up for a few minutes while he figured out just what the hell he was supposed to do with his kids.


	21. Gods, Part II

**_17 February 1999; SGC, Earth; 1355 hrs_ **

Teal'c was late.

Well, he wasn't, really, since Daniel was actually early, but it felt like he was late, because Teal'c was always precisely on time, and Daniel was very rarely early. Today, however, he'd been glad of an excuse to get out of the office as fast as he could. Robert was being quiet.

Then again, Robert Rothman was usually one of the less aggressive people in a passionate department. Daniel found this odd at times, since the man was the one who was supposed to give them all their orders. He sometimes suspected that Robert was a little intimidated by some of the other researchers, especially those who answered to Robert for the practical reason that he'd been at the SGC longer, even though many of them were older and more experienced academically, and perhaps as well qualified.

Today, though, it was worse--Robert had spent the morning staring at a piece of translation that Daniel was fairly sure shouldn't have taken more than a couple of hours, at least for a first draft, and he'd paid no mind at all to anyone except Daniel himself, with a mumbled greeting when their workday started.

And then they'd spent the rest of the morning not really talking, which was uncomfortable, because that was what they did--one person read something interesting and asked about it or made some comment, and the other one could keep that fact in mind for reference or might mention how it was connected to something else, and wasn't that just like that thing SG-whatever had brought back from P3X-something the other week? Or when they were bored, they talked, sometimes, in as many languages as they could, just for practice. Not today.

So Daniel had tried and failed not to be disconcerted by the uncharacteristic silence in the office and left earlier than he really needed to in order to arrive at the gym in time to finish warming up before he met with Teal'c for his hand-to-hand combat training.

It was because of Apophis, of course. It had taken Daniel a while to realize it, but yesterday was the first time Robert had ever seen a Goa'uld face-to-face. He was supposed to be joining SG-11 eventually, if he ever took the time to take his qualifying tests, and surely they would see more Goa'uld than they wanted to before long, but as it stood, the first time Robert met someone whose name he'd studied for all of his career, it had been to see a weakened and dying tyrant who had trampled over everything he had learned as an Egyptologist.

It wasn't as bad for Daniel; he had known about the false gods before Robert had, and he'd seen Apophis and other Goa'uld before, anyway. It wasn't a problem.

Jack seemed to think it was, but Daniel had managed to avoid him so far today.

It wasn't _avoiding_ him, exactly. Well, yes, it was. But really, Jack should be asking after someone like Sam, whom Daniel had found still on base and awake and working distractedly at 0300, so frustrated about something that he'd poked his head in only to duck when a pen flew out the door and nearly hit him in the head. She'd been horrified, then, which hadn't been his intention at all, but something was bothering her, for certain. If anyone would be disturbed by the death of a Goa'uld and his host, it was Sam.

Or Teal'c--Teal'c must be affected more than any of them, since he'd known for years that Apophis was a false god but had had to serve him anyway. Daniel had seen his expression when he'd finally seen Apophis dead, and there had to be a reason Teal'c had been in such deep _kelno'reem_ all last night that he hadn't even heard Daniel's knock on his door around midnight. Hadn't heard or hadn't answered--either way, it meant something.

And Apophis might not even be dead. No one had actually said that to Daniel, but there were rumors flying around the base about the attack that had nearly destroyed their iris, and the Tok'ra, and Apophis, and Sokar. The word 'sarcophagus' had been uttered more than once, and it wasn't difficult to guess what that meant.

Daniel covered a yawn, rubbing his eyes, and folded his arms impatiently. Restless without really knowing why, he paced along the edge of the mat.

"Hey, Daniel," Ferretti's voice said, and Daniel started so hard that he almost crashed into the man. "Whoa, steady there. Just saying 'hi.'"

"Hi," Daniel replied, but it sounded so sharp that he cleared his throat and tried again, "How are you, Major Ferretti?"

Ferretti paused, frowning, then said, "Good. You okay?"

Daniel caught sight of Teal'c moving toward him and sighed in relief before he could stop himself or wonder why. "Sorry, Major," he said, edging away, "I'm meeting Teal'c."

"Yeah...no problem," Ferretti said dubiously.

Teal'c looked the same as he always did, not scowling or frazzled or anything, but Daniel couldn't read his expression, which bothered him for some reason he couldn't explain.

" _Tek'ma'tek, Daniel Jackson,_ " Teal'c said, sounding for all the world as if he hadn't seen his god die the day before. " _Kel shek?_ "

" _Kel shak, Tek'ma'tae_ ," Daniel answered, backing onto the mat.

" _Lo'sek. Kree ka..._ "

And then Daniel found out that he had apparently forgotten how his arms and legs worked, because none of the drills was going the way it was supposed to. The third time Teal'c caught his elbow and pulled him to a halt in the same way in the same sequence, he waited for his training master to explode at him. Instead, Teal'c held his arm an extra second, then let go.

"Your muscles are too rigid," the Jaffa told him neutrally. "You lose much of your speed and all of your grace."

Gritting his teeth, Daniel stepped back, trying to figure out why was Teal'c so unmoved. Why he didn't seem to _care_. "Again?" he asked.

"Indeed," Teal'c answered, not even bothering to pretend he was going to try to defend himself against an actual threat, and Daniel couldn't tell if Teal'c's eyes were mocking or if it was Daniel's own imagination.

Annoyed now, Daniel started forward again, ducking aside when Teal'c made to grab hold of him again, only to find himself all but running into Teal'c's other hand to end sprawling on the floor.

" _Yi shay!_ " he swore, his hand stinging where it had hit the mat and his pride stinging for making a mistake that he hadn't made in over a year. He pushed himself up and moved back a few steps, trying to make himself concentrate and relax and do all the stupid things he was supposed to do.

"You normally do not experience such difficulty, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, watching him but _still_ not deigning to reprimand him for all the idiotic mistakes he was making or for anything else, and by all the gods true and false, why wasn't he?

"I know," Daniel snapped, and then, "Why aren't you angry?"

Teal'c tilted his head, light glinting off his Serpent brand. "You have made simple errors. That is no cause for anger."

Frustrated, Daniel paced to the other end of the mat and back, stepped back into position. "Fine. Again."

" _Ar'ee kree!_ " Teal'c ordered. Daniel pulled up short. "Calm yourself. Then we will begin again."

Daniel glared resentfully but dropped into a crouch and rested there for a moment, telling himself that if he willed himself to be calm, he could be as calm as he wanted, dammit.

Several deep breaths later, he stood. "Sorry."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow that said he doubted that very much, but he didn't comment. "Very well. Begin."

This time when he landed on the mat, he looked up and saw Teal'c bending over him, just like he'd looked down yesterday at Apophis on his bed, just like Daniel had looked down at Apophis, and something snapped. With a snarl, he rolled over without waiting for instruction and launched himself back up and into Teal'c's chest.

He finally landed one solid blow, but Teal'c's body was unyielding under his hand. Distantly, he remembered the reprimand that he should never, ever try to overpower a Jaffa as strong as Teal'c was, that he shouldn't fight someone while tight with anger, because it would only make him slower and clumsier than ever, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.

Teal'c took a single step backward for balance and caught his arm and pinned it firmly in place. "Stop," he said, his voice low and stern.

_'Yell at me!_ ' Daniel wanted to scream. _'Don't just stand there like you don't care!_ '

He twisted to the side to free himself partially and swung his other fist toward the Jaffa. And then it was intercepted and held tight as well, and he heard another growl emerge from his throat. "It's not... It's _not fair_!"

"Daniel Jackson, you must stop."

"Why aren't you angry _?_ " Daniel demanded again, struggling futilely against Teal'c's rock-like fists and horrified to feel the burn of tears beginning to prickle at the back of his eyes. " _Yi shay_ , Teal'c! Why aren't you... _furious_? How can you...how can you just _stand_ there and not be--"

"I am extremely angry!" Teal'c thundered back at him, his face only inches away. His fingers tightened briefly on Daniel's arms, just enough so that Daniel felt the pressure on his wrists build and hint at pain. Then Teal'c's voice dropped to a quiet, deep growl, and he let go with jerk that made Daniel stumble to find his balance. "But I am not angry at you, _chal'ti_. It is not you I wish to hurt."

Daniel swallowed and let his head drop in shame and a suddenly overwhelming wave of grief. He raised his fists again, but this time, he let them fall against Teal'c's chest and leaned against him, still breathing fast. "It didn't even matter," he whispered, his legs suddenly shaky, like they might drop out from under him at any moment.

"Of what do you speak?"

"We told him his soul was in the keeping of the gods, and then we sent his body back to Sokar, and he's being revived and...and _everything_ again, isn't he?"

"That is likely," Teal'c agreed.

"Then it didn't matter," Daniel repeated, pushing away and turning to pace to the edge of the mat and back. "We tried--did our best to make him a little less scared, and it was a lie, anyway. It was all a _lie_."

For a while there was no answer. Then Teal'c's hands gripped his shoulders again, steadying him and forcing him to look up.

"Daniel Jackson, I do not believe we should continue to practice battle today."

A breathy laugh forced its way out of his throat, and he clamped down on it before it could turn into anything else. " _Kel sha_."

" _Re, chal'ti. Nok._ "

Teal'c turned and headed toward the exit. For a second, Daniel considered disobeying and not following him, just because he could, except that that would be impractical as well as petty, since he did have to leave the gym eventually, anyway, and by standing here he would be the one who ended up looking silly.

"Wait, wait," he said, balking at Teal'c's most common solution to things like this. "I don't...I tried meditating all last night, and I couldn't, so I don't think--"

"We will not attempt to reach _kelno'reem_ ," Teal'c said, then said nothing more until they reached the locker room.

Jack was there. He seemed to be making a long chain out of rubber bands, which Daniel took to mean he'd either run out of paperclips or accidentally locked himself out of his office. When he looked up with an almost guilty expression, though, Daniel wondered if he had been deliberately waiting for them to finish. He knew Daniel's training schedule, after all, and certainly didn't look like he was doing anything that would cause him to be in the locker room otherwise.

"What's going on?" Jack asked. Daniel tried automatically to move toward his locker and a shower, but Teal'c clamped a hand on his shoulder.

"O'Neill," he said, "I wish to ask for your permission to take Daniel Jackson outside the SGC."

Daniel felt his shoulders stiffen. He didn't want to leave the base, with a friend or not. Being on base meant time to read the countless books in the base library that he hadn't had a chance to really look at yet, or freedom to run through the halls at night when fewer people remained on duty, or the ability to stop into the labs to look at the things going on there.

It wasn't just that, though. Even somewhere familiar and comfortable like Jack's house, there was an undercurrent of worry that being away from the SGC meant a chance that he would be cut off from the portal that linked Earth to the only other place that meant home to him. Irrational worry, perhaps, and it didn't usually bother him. A short drive in a car wasn't very much, after all. He couldn't figure out why that bothered him now.

"You want to leave the SGC and go where?" Jack said warily.

"When I asked you to show me your world, you led me to the top of the mountain in which we reside," Teal'c said. "I wish to go there now."

Daniel opened his mouth to ask if anyone was planning to ask _him_ if he wanted to climb a mountain, because he was standing _right here_ , but then closed it when he decided it might be better than sitting in the office, anyway, trying to pretend Robert wasn't sneaking little glances at him between cursing some phrase that no one could translate properly.

Better than being forced to talk to Jack, because Jack understood, but he didn't _understand_ , sometimes. Not about this, anyway, not the way Teal'c would. Jack cared, but that was because it mattered to them, and they mattered to him. Apophis meant something to Jack the way he meant something to everyone at the SGC; it was different for Teal'c, and for Daniel.

"Okay," Jack agreed easily. "I'll go with you."

"You will not, O'Neill," Teal'c said firmly. "Daniel Jackson and I have matters to discuss."

Jack looked from one to the other, hesitated, then nodded and said again, "Okay. I'll call the guards up top so they know to let you leave. Just, you know...put on a hat."

Teal'c inclined his head and finally released Daniel so he could reach into his locker for the hat.

"Don't stay out too late," Jack added, heading out the door. A few seconds later, his head reappeared. "And bring a jacket, at least, and warmer clothes. It's chilly out there."

Ferretti chose that moment to walk in. "Listen to Mom, boys," he said, his words teasing and directed more toward Jack than toward them, because Ferretti liked to tease and it was funny, most of the time, but now Daniel felt his fists clench from the effort of not snapping back that he _couldn't_ listen to his mom anymore, or hadn't Ferretti noticed?

It had been a long time since he'd thought something like that. He'd come to terms with it, and he hated Apophis for making him lose that, too.

Teal'c pushed Daniel's jacket into his hands. Daniel bit down on words he didn't mean that he would regret later and didn't say anything at all in answer. Ferretti's grin faltered. Daniel kept his head down and followed Teal'c out the door and up to the surface.

XXXXX

**_17 February 1999; Cheyenne Mountain, Earth; 1445 hrs_ **

The ground was still hard from weeks and weeks of weather cold enough to freeze the earth for inches below the surface.

When they'd gone to Abydos a few months ago, Sam had remarked on how different it was to walk on sand. Daniel liked it, himself, the way his feet sank a little into the sides of the sand dunes as if the land itself were returning an embrace. She'd explained something about kinetic and potential energy, and efficiency and rebounding. And yes, of course it was easier to run fast when the ground didn't move, everyone knew that, but even on Abydos, Daniel had always liked the shifting sand, slithering between his toes and moving when his feet moved, the way that the soil of the more fertile planting grounds and the hard-packed soil in town could never quite do.

All the Nagadan boys liked to run out into the open desert, some for the feeling of sheer freedom and others to prove they were brave enough and strong enough. When Daniel had been very young, his parents had scolded him more times than he could remember for venturing on his own outside Nagada's walls, because once in a while, a child slipped out, wandered away out of sight of the village, lost his way in an unexpected sandstorm, and never returned.

Skaara had almost died once doing just that, and only luck had let someone stumble across him and bring him home. Daniel had been very young then, and all he really remembered now was the terror and the helplessness of waiting and hoping for someone to find Skaara and, afterward, huddling next to his brother while Skaara shivered from heat sickness. Kasuf and his parents had been there, looking after Skaara, and Sha'uri had sung them lullabies and told nonsense stories to make them laugh.

But now, he was still waiting and hoping, and he was starting to doubt that he would ever hear Sha'uri's voice or Skaara's laugh again. And the rocks and earth of Earth's Cheyenne Mountain were becoming so familiar now, and his feet had felt the ground of enough worlds, that he suspected running in Abydonian desert sand would never feel quite the same as it had before.

Daniel sucked in a surprised breath as the mountain suddenly gave way under his boots. It wasn't sand, though, or even dirt; it was only a pile of soft snow that crumbled beneath his foot and made him slip. Teal'c turned at his gasp and caught his elbow before he could fall. Somehow, the half-melted snow on the ground made it seem even colder than it should be.

"It is, in fact, the cold season, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said.

Daniel grimaced. "Did I say that aloud?"

Teal'c nodded solemnly. "Indeed."

Sam would have smiled indulgently at him and commiserated about how easy it was to lose track of one's thoughts. Jack would have snorted and made some caustic statement that was actually a joke. Robert would have rolled his eyes and told him to stop stalling and finish writing up that summary of chapter twenty-six already, geek.

Oh. Oops. He sill hadn't done that.

"You will do so at a later time," Teal'c informed him.

He shut his mouth tightly and resolved to pay more attention to what managed to make its way from his brain to his mouth, since his brain was clearly not doing very well on its own today.

"What are we doing here?" Daniel asked.

"Our Tau'ri friends spend much of their lives indoors," Teal'c said without looking at him. "At times, they forget that others are accustomed to living with fewer walls between us and the sky."

"Yes," Daniel said. "I suppose that's true. Do you come up here alone?"

"On occasion," Teal'c said.

"What if other people come by and hear us talking?"

"I believe that few people will venture here during the cold season, and I would know of their presence before they could approach."

Daniel pulled his jacket tighter around himself, feeling sweat on his face and under his clothes beginning to cool in the chill air, wondering if maybe _they_ shouldn't be venturing out here in the cold season either. "Are we going to somewhere particular, or...?"

"You will stay warmer if we do not stop moving. Moreover, I did not call a halt to your exercises so that you could sit like a rock."

Right. He'd called a halt because Daniel had...something. Whatever that had been. Daniel didn't answer, and Teal'c continued walking.

A few minutes later, when he couldn't stand the silence, Daniel asked, "Do you communicate with your _prim'ta_? Do you know its thoughts, or what it...what it feels?"

"I do not," Teal'c said, giving him a strange look. "It is impossible. For what reason do you ask?"

_(Apophis reared up from the bed. "Amaunet! My love!")_

"No reason," Daniel lied.

"You lie poorly," Teal'c told him. Daniel shrugged half-heartedly but didn't elaborate. Teal'c didn't ask him to.

He cast about for another subject and said, "What about, uh...um, Sokar. You haven't told me about Sokar. I mean, I had never heard of him until just yesterday, other than from Tau'ri mythology."

"There is much that you have to learn of the System Lords," Teal'c told him. "What I have taught you of their history thus far is only a small portion what you have yet to hear. Even after years of tutelage under Master Bra'tac, there remains much that I have not had time to learn from him."

That was true. He could hardly expect to learn all of Goa'uld and Jaffa history in a year's time, with all of its twists and intricacies, shaded with falsehoods and biases at every turn, and even Teal'c didn't know all there was to know about the Goa'uld.

"Tell me now?" he asked, folding his arms around himself. "Who was Sokar? Why does he hate Apophis so much?"

"It is not only Apophis who is hated by Sokar," Teal'c said. "Many Goa'uld together were needed to drive Sokar from power. The three who were most essential to his downfall were Apophis, Ra, and Cronus."

"Cronus," Daniel repeated, automatically thinking about where he recognized the name. "From Greek mythology. He was the leader of the Titans. He was said to have swallowed his children, for fear of being overthrown by them."

"Cronus does not hesitate to kill his followers when they become too strong."

"He didn't actually kill them, though."

"In fact, he did," Teal'c said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Oh," Daniel said, trying to decide whether there was a second meaning in that. "But one of the sons escaped that fate and defeated him in the end." Teal'c's eyes glittered darkly, and he knew there was _something_ there, but if Teal'c was allowing him his private thoughts, Daniel supposed he should return the favor. "Is Cronus still alive?" he asked instead. "Do you know a lot about him?"

"Indeed."

Daniel waited for more. Teal'c stepped over a patch of snow and didn't continue. Daniel didn't push that line of questioning, either.

"Then," he said, "of those three who orchestrated the defeat of Sokar, Ra was killed years ago, and Apophis...is no longer in power. I suppose we should be worried about Cronus now, since the Tau'ri had a hand in the fall of the other two. He's still in power, right?"

"Cronus has long been among the most influential System Lords," Teal'c confirmed, his lips dipping into a frown. "He is strongly opposed to Apophis. I was born believing him to be my only god."

Daniel felt his eyebrows rise. It certainly helped to explain why Teal'c had been able to believe that Apophis wasn't the only god, if he had already betrayed or perhaps fled from another Goa'uld before. Then again...he wasn't clear on what it was, exactly, that made Jaffa follow the Goa'uld--whether it was actually belief, or years of enslavement, or fear. Belief was of less consequence, perhaps, when disloyalty meant death.

"Who's stronger now," Daniel asked, "Cronus or Sokar?"

"That is impossible to determine."

Of course. Stupid question. Teal'c hadn't even known Sokar was still alive until yesterday; how could he possibly know what kind of power Sokar had regained since his return?

"However," Teal'c continued, "Martouf of the Tok'ra indicated that Sokar is preoccupied with a war against Heru-ur."

"What does that mean?"

"You are not without a brain, _chal'ti_. Think."

Daniel wrinkled his nose but thought. "So...that means Sokar can't be very strong," he guessed, "if he chose an enemy like Apophis, who was weakened already, and now Heru-ur, who has been trying to build his army since Cimmeria."

"That is correct," Teal'c said.

"I hope Sokar wins."

Teal'c gave him a stern look. "You do not hope for Sokar's victory. You hope for Heru-ur's defeat."

Daniel considered that, then admitted to himself that it was true. Part of him thought distantly that they should be afraid--perhaps very afraid--of what a victory for Sokar might mean for them. The last time, it had taken the combined forces of several powerful Goa'uld who despised each other to kill him, after all, and he hadn't even really died. "That was a thoughtless thing to say. Sokar is probably worse than Heru-ur, or at least no better."

"But it is vengeance against Heru-ur that you seek."

Heru-ur, who had stolen Sha'uri and defenseless, unborn Shifu and then tried to steal him again on Kheb...

"If Sokar defeated Heru-ur," Daniel asked, "what would happen to him?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "No doubt Heru-ur would be executed."

Daniel felt his fists begin to clench again. "Executed. And then healed, and executed again, and then again."

"That is likely."

"Like what Sokar is doing to Apophis, right now."

"Indeed."

Daniel watched Teal'c out of the corner of his eye. "That doesn't bother you?"

Teal'c turned to him fully. "No."

There was little he could say to that. But it wasn't so simple, not for Daniel and not even for Teal'c, surely, despite what he claimed, because he had seen, too, that Apophis was not only a snake, but two beings in the same body, and it wasn't _fair_.

"I hate Apophis," he said tightly. "How dare he..." Daniel stomped deliberately in a pile of snow, and then found that there was a melted puddle beneath it and only made his foot wet. He shook his shoe futilely before continuing to march on. "It's not fair."

"I find it a fitting punishment," Teal'c said, and Daniel hadn't really been talking about the punishment at all, but the words bothered him nonetheless.

"Fitting!" Daniel said. "What about the host, Teal'c?"

Teal'c was silent for a long time. When he spoke his voice was quiet and dark. "It is indeed a great injustice. We are no longer free to hate the Goa'uld without remorse."

"But even for Apophis," he pressed, "isn't that...cruel?"

Teal'c nodded. "Indeed." He didn't look like he had any problem at all with that, though.

Death might-- _would_ \--have been a fitting punishment. There had been a moment yesterday--several moments, perhaps--when Daniel had wanted to walk in and demand that Apophis tell him where his brother was, if only because he was sure Apophis would refuse out of spite, and then he would have an excuse to feel no regret at the death of the murderer lying on the bed. If Jack--or the general, or whoever it was--hadn't given an explicit order for him to stay away from Apophis, then he might have reached out with his own hands and...

But a sarcophagus--how could something meant to give life become an instrument of torture? Cruelty to an enemy was one thing, when he was a spineless, evil snake who knew nothing of humanity. Then the lines blurred, and Apophis the snake was not only their enemy, but also--

_("Amaunet, where are you? My love!")_

\--a host to bits and pieces that were almost humane, entrenched within yet another host who was wholly human. How was it fair that they could not heal the man for fear of helping the parasite, could not kill the parasite for fear of killing the man, and could not even heal the parasite with a sarcophagus or healing device for fear of condemning the man's soul? What did it say about them, that the greatest mercy they could grant a host was to kill him, even while the very act of killing him was not entirely for mercy at all but rather to fulfill their own craving for the death of the parasite within him?

How was it fair that their hate for one had to be tainted with guilt, while their pity for the other could not be carried out in compassionate action?

"He was your god," Daniel said. A meaningless thing to say, perhaps, but he was still agitated, unsatisfied with what had happened and unsatisfied with what hadn't. "You saw your god die."

Teal'c scowled deeply. "He was no god," he declared.

Daniel wasn't interested in rebellion propaganda now, true or not. "How long did you serve him?" he said, his teeth gritted now, knowing it was mean and temporarily warmed by the anger it brought. "You did everything he asked of you, no matter what it was. How long were you his _slave_ , _Jaffa_?"

A muscle tightened in Teal'c's jaw as he stopped and stared at Daniel. "Long enough to see your home destroyed," he said, low and harsh and dangerous.

Daniel flinched, then turned away and kept walking. "I remember," he spat.

A hand pulled him to a stop. "I do not intend to hurt you, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, his tone not quite one of apology--it was quieter now, but with a warning not to test him, not to push him any further. Daniel wanted to push, wanted to dig out the rage that Teal'c had to have buried somewhere, because if Teal'c was angry, then it was acceptable for Daniel to be, too, and Daniel _wanted_ to be angry. If he could not see Apophis dead or the host saved--for they had tried and failed at both--then he could at least be furious about the fact, _yi shay_.

"Did it please you to see Apophis dead?" he demanded. "Did you enjoy looking at his face when he was helpless and--"

"Yes," Teal'c hissed.

Daniel ground his teeth together. "Don't pretend it didn't hurt."

Teal'c narrowed his eyes. "I waited many years for that moment."

"To see your god die?" Daniel taunted, welcoming the warmth of fury as it surged and not caring where it was directed. "You--you never believed it before, did you? You never thought he would really ever be gone and...and be defeated. How many years did you pretend you believed in him, and..."

Teal'c's fist closed over the collar of his jacket and Daniel flailed, off-balance, until he found a grip on Teal'c's arm, too, not in resistance but to pull himself even closer and continue,"...and then you finally knew that he was going to die, but then there was a _man_ he has been using who has been hurt even more than _you_ or any one of us and you would have left him to..."

"Neither is it your intent to hurt me," Teal'c interrupted him, a low rumble that might have been a threat, and maybe was, a little, except that it was also true.

"I wanted to hurt _him_!" Daniel burst out, his fingers tightening on Teal'c's sleeve.

"Yet you did not."

"No, Teal'c! I didn't. I _didn't_."

Teal'c gently released him and let him find his feet. "Do you believe this to be a weakness?"

"No!" Daniel cried, then blew out a breath. "He was innocent. I mean, not _him_. I mean. I don't know what I mean." What heat the angry words had given him bled away. He wrapped himself more tightly again in his jacket and lowered himself to sit on a clear spot on the ground.

Dark, assessing eyes stared at him from overhead. "I watched you kneel to the man I once called 'Master.'"

"Not to him. I would never kneel to a Goa'uld. But...Teal'c, if I died here on Earth, I would want someone to tell me that my soul...my _kalach_ would be returned to my home."

Teal'c lifted a foot, as if to step closer, but then stopped. "That day is not near," he said.

"I know--that's not what I'm..." Daniel dug his fingers into the hard soil, bits of the ground crumbling in his fingers. "If Skaara..." He choked. "If...if Skaara dies somewhere far from home, who would do the rites for him? Or for Sha'uri?"

He could feel Teal'c staring at the top of his head before the Jaffa sat down opposite him. "Your brother and his sister will be found."

"Do you promise?"

"I cannot," Teal'c said quietly.

Daniel sniffed and rubbed his nose. It was beginning to run from the chill. "I know."

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said seriously, "if I am among those who find Klorel or Amaunet, and there is no way to save them, I will do for them what you did for he who was host to Apophis."

"His name was Khotep," he said woodenly. "He had a family."

Teal'c inclined his head in acknowledgement. "I give you my word."

Daniel nodded, hating that dignity in death was the best comfort he could ask for. "I shouldn't have said that to you about...about Apophis. I had no right."

"I was unable to reach _kelno'reem_ yesterday," Teal'c said, sounding like he was confessing a crime. "Never have I witnessed such a thing. I waited almost my entire life to see Apophis dead, so that I could rejoice. I would mark it as a holy day."

"Did it..." Daniel said hesitantly, "did it feel...?"

"It did not," Teal'c said. "I was blinded by the face of my former master and did not have the strength to act with honor."

"You're the strongest person I know, Teal'c."

"That is high honor indeed from one such as you, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel snorted. "I don't know how you survived," he admitted, imagining living for nearly a century as a slave. Daniel shuddered at the thought of being forced into that life, not only enslaved but forced to enslave others, too. "I don't think I could have, serving a Goa'uld. It must be hard."

But Teal'c shook his head. "You are stronger than you believe. You would have survived, though I would not wish for you to learn that."

Perhaps 'survive' was the wrong word. Holding onto life was one thing; holding onto everything else, after a lifetime of servitude...Teal'c had emerged as a good man. Daniel was sure many other Jaffa would not have and was terrified at the thought that he himself might not have if he'd been in that place.

"It does you no good to dwell on what has not passed," Teal'c said.

"But I wonder," Daniel said.

Teal'c inclined his head. "Indeed."

"Don't you?'

"I have no need," Teal'c said, almost amused, "when you wonder enough for us both."

Daniel bit his lip. "It's just...we said the words to...not to Apophis, exactly, but Teal'c, he...I didn't..." He picked out a few pebbles and threw them away, then threw a few more after them for good measure. "I don't know."

"On the contrary, you know well, " Teal'c said, catching his hand until he dropped the rest of the rocks and soil onto the ground. "It did not help him."

"No," Daniel said. The word fell heavily and sank into his skin like an ache he couldn't shake. "And. And when I should have..."

When he didn't go on, Teal'c said evenly, "He is one of those responsible for the death of your parents. You said the words for him, and not for them."

Daniel hugged his knees to his chest for warmth. "Yes."

"Do you believe they would have disapproved?"

"No," he sighed. "Of course not."

Kasuf had done the rites for his parents, of course, and there were undoubtedly many others who had lent their voices to ask the gods for eternal peace for the Jacksons. And it wasn't Khotep, the scribe of Amun, who had invaded Nagada, so whatever Daniel and Robert had done yesterday hadn't been for Apophis. But Daniel's dreams only saw the face of a murderer and a tyrant, and it felt like a betrayal, nonetheless.

"Tell me what Jaffa do for their dead?" Daniel asked.

"My people have been a race of slaves for many millennia," Teal'c said. "Few traditions to honor the dead are permitted."

"My people were slaves for millennia, too," Daniel countered. "I know how people can preserve the important traditions without letting the Goa'uld know."

Teal'c considered for a moment. "My father, Ronac, was First Prime to Cronus. He was executed when I was approximately your age."

Daniel winced. "Oh."

"My mother and I were exiled by Cronus, and we fled to Chulak. I joined Apophis's army in the hope that I would one day defeat Cronus and avenge my father's death. There, Master Bra'tac told me that the body of a Jaffa warrior is honored by being burned because the body is no longer of importance when the _kalach_ is free."

_("When the mind is opened," said the guardian of the temple at Kheb, "the spirit is freed, and the body matters not.")_

Daniel leaned forward, intrigued. "He said that?"

"I had never before heard of such a thing. Jaffa are taught that the body is burned so that it does not consume needless space, but Master Bra'tac told me the true reason from ancient times--that it is for honor, not for shame. It was during those years that I began to realize how the Goa'uld have lied to my people."

"It's hard to know what to think when the Goa'uld twist everything," Daniel said. Teal'c nodded seriously. "We don't do that on Abydos--burn the bodies, I mean. We have burial grounds, instead, where they can be honored. Well," he said, scratching his head, "I suppose you already know that. You've seen those grounds, after all."

"I do not wish to offend in saying that Jaffa do not believe the body to be important," Teal'c said.

"Of course not," Daniel assured him. "It's different for everyone--that's what I study, the ways of different people. I mean, the Jaffa have their traditions, and we have ours, and I know some Tau'ri pray to a god and others don't... It doesn't matter to me. My parents probably wouldn't have cared, either way, except that..." He trailed off, and a laugh surprised its way out of him.

Teal'c tilted his head.

"No, no," Daniel said hastily, "I just mean...I bet they would have said it was a shame they only got a chance to experience it once, with one set of customs. They would've thought it was interesting. You know?"

"I do not," Teal'c said honestly.

Daniel shrugged. "Well. I'm sure they would have."

Suddenly, Teal'c said, "In my culture, when kinsmen are killed in battle--"

"Please don't say that they, uh..." he said quickly, raising a hand, "I really don't want to hear about retribution."

More slowly and with a hint of rebuke, Teal'c said, "I intended to say that we honor their accomplishments; we do not dwell on their loss."

"Oh." Daniel flushed at his assumption but said, "It's not that easy, though, is it. You can celebrate their life, but when you're done, the celebration is over, and they're still gone as much as ever, and it's not any better than it was before. Right?"

There was a pause, and then Teal'c inclined his head. "I cannot disagree. At times, I forget how well you know loss."

"I'm sorry," Daniel said. "I don't mean to--"

"The mother of my wife died shortly after Rya'c was born. As you say, Drey'auc did mourn the loss deeply."

Daniel grimaced and said again, "I'm sorry."

"There is an old Jaffa song of mourning that she sang on that night."

"Sha'uri liked to sing," Daniel said, then bit his lip at how pathetically wistful that sounded. "I mean...go on."

Teal'c hesitated and, incredibly, seemed almost embarrassed. "I do not sing. But I will tell you the words, if you wish."

Touched, Daniel said, "I would like to learn the words."

"Then you must learn quickly," the Jaffa said, strict again, their roles and their balance finally restored, "before your mind becomes frozen along with your fingers, _chal'ti_."

Daniel smiled a little as he blew into his chilled hands and listened and learned and repeated. And if someone could hear from the next life, perhaps he could give his parents another tradition after all.


	22. Cultural Interlude

**_17 February 1999; SGC, Earth; 1700 hrs_ **

Daniel sighed in relief at the artificial heat inside the SGC when he and Teal'c went back in. He rubbed his hands together for further warmth and waited impatiently at to pass the screenings and the security checkpoints before boarding the bus into the Mountain. He sat just a little closer to Teal'c, who didn't seem to have been bothered by the cold at all. He blinked, suddenly tired and only now realizing how much time he'd spent staring at books and not reading them the night before, or wandering the halls because he couldn't manage to sleep and couldn't reach _kelno'reem_ or even the closest that a human could get to _kelno'reem_.

Teal'c prodded him awake when they arrived and descended in the elevator together, both heading wordlessly to the locker room. "I will return to my quarters," Teal'c told him as they each grabbed their things. "You are welcome to join me if you wish."

"Actually, I think I'm just going to change and go to sleep," Daniel admitted.

By the time he emerged from his shower and was beginning to dress in his normal BDUs again, Teal'c was already gone. Jack was just coming back into the locker room from the gym and paused when he saw Daniel there. "Hello," he said mildly. "How d'you like the Mountain from the outside?"

Daniel hid his eyes in the shirt he was pulling over his head. "It was...nice, actually," he said, surprised to realize it was true, despite the cold and everything else. "I like seeing the trees in winter around here."

"Really? No leaves."

"There's no pollen, either," he pointed out. "And you know they'll grow back."

"You okay?" Jack said abruptly, and Daniel was suddenly ashamed for telling him to go away last night because he hadn't known what else to do, but he was starting to realize that sometimes, Jack didn't know what to do, either. He wondered whether Jack had gone home last night, after all, and suspected with a pang of guilt that he hadn't.

"Where, uh... Is Sam...?"

"Went home to get some rest hours ago," Jack said. "You?"

Sitting down on a bench, Daniel looked up at Jack through his still-wet hair and admitted, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."

"Aht! Don't. It sucked, okay? Everything about yesterday...sucked. But I need to know if you're okay."

Daniel bent down to finger the laces of his shoes but didn't put them on. "I was upset."

"It's becoming a habit," Jack said, his voice annoyed, though the expression that he wore told a different story. It had been over a year since he'd left his village, and Daniel was still discovering that the language of a people's bodies was more important than the language they spoke. Or maybe it was just _these_ people, with their odd mix of normal Tau'ri culture and military etiquette and habits they'd picked up from off-world travel. Jack was easier, because Daniel knew what Jack was like, but harder, too, because Jack spoke at least as much with his body as he did with his words even when he didn't realize it, and it was sometimes difficult to figure out which one was telling the truth.

"I just," Daniel said, looking at his feet, because it was easier. "I didn't mean to... Talking to Teal'c helped."

"Often does," Jack agreed, neutral again.

"It just never seems to go the way we want," Daniel said. "I keep thinking something will go right, and then--"

Jack's snort cut him off. "If you're going to keep count of good and bad, you have to count everything you translate right and every piece of shiny, new tech we bring back, too."

Daniel thought back over the past few months and tried to count the number of good missions and projects. But when he tried to compare that to the missions that had gone badly, it felt dishonorable, because translating something correctly and hearing about someone missing somewhere, dead or lost forever...they weren't comparable.

"My point was," Jack clarified, "don't try to keep a tally."

"Yes," Daniel agreed.

"I've also found that it's good to take breaks, especially when you're not used to how intense this work can get."

"Is that a hint, Jack?"

"More like an order, actually," Jack said, watching him closely.

Daniel narrowed his eyes defensively. "I know I've... but I haven't done anything--"

"I didn't say you did anything wrong," Jack interrupted. "And it's not _my_ order. Rothman says you were planning to take your GEDs in about a month and that you haven't spent as much time as you should have studying, so you should cram. And _I_ say you need time off from...from crap."

"I _have_ been studying, Jack, he knows that. I could pass now if I had to." Well, not with perfect scores, and he might have to study some biology a little more diligently, but he could be ready by the time he was to take it, and he'd pass, which was good enough, wasn't it, when it was just some number Robert wanted to see before he could be allowed to work without so much restriction at the SGC.

"So it shouldn't be much of a change," Jack pointed out. "You'll study during the time you'd usually be on duty. And if Rothman says so, you can study things related to SGC work, too. His words, not mine. You just won't be asked to go off-world anywhere until then, so you can have a normal sleeping schedule for once, at least."

"'For once?' I didn't go off-world anywhere for months--"

"--before Kheb," Jack finished. "When Shifu was here. You gonna try to tell me you had a normal sleeping schedule then?"

Daniel didn't try to tell Jack anything like that. Shifu had been hungry every few hours, and feeding him had been the easy part.

"That's what I thought. So, listen to Rothman, your training schedule at the gym and with me can stay the same if you want, and if the base is under attack you can help out."

"Is this what the general said?" Daniel asked.

"The general would rather you didn't burn out," Jack said bluntly. "Or..." He gestured vaguely but didn't finish. "And I told you months ago that Dr. Rothman and I would have final say over your schedule. He has said, and now I have said. So take it easy for a few weeks."

The protest was automatic, but half-hearted. "But--"

"You're supposed to be working part-time and studying the rest. The last few weeks--months--haven't helped that, so this is just making up that time. Not _even_ making up. And once you're done with the GEDs, Rothman won't argue if you want to concentrate more on SGC stuff."

Daniel chewed his lip. "He really said that?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "He left already--"

"He wasn't even supposed to be here today," Daniel remembered. "He had the day off." So did SG-1 and everyone who was involved yesterday.

"I think he's a little freaked," Jack said. "Yesterday was pretty...freaky."

"Yes," Daniel agreed.

"And...I think maybe _you're_ a little freaked, too."

He glanced up at Jack's carefully blank face. "Maybe."

"The thing is," Jack said, "the way things are, you're probably gonna end up facing more ugly things at some point. And I'm not saying that's good, but...you gotta take it easy sometimes. Don't forget about the good stuff, or you won't make it through."

Daniel grimaced at his feet, wondering if it was possible to see so many people be killed that it was no longer a shock. If he even _wanted_ that to happen. "I can't just ignore it. What makes us different from the enemy if we don't--"

Jack poked him in the chest with a finger to cut him off. "I'm not saying you ignore anything. I'm saying to take it easy and get yourself out of the line of fire for a few weeks. I'll let you help save the world after."

Daniel ignored the joke, chewing at his lip, and nodded again. "Okay."

Jack blinked. He opened his mouth and closed it and blinked again. "Okay?"

"Okay," Daniel repeated, and he left his backpack and books on base that night when Jack drove him home.

XXXXX

**_27 February 1999; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 1400 hrs_ **

"So there _aren't_ only two political factions--parties--in this nation," Daniel said, watching Jack flop onto the couch.

"There are many," Jack said, "but it's basically a given that one of the two main ones will win the presidential election."

"But not necessarily the other elections," Daniel clarified.

"Not always, yeah. But it's still usually one of the two biggest parties that wins."

"Then why do people...run in the other parties, even for the President's election?"

"Presidential," Jack corrected, then explained, "People can vote for any of the parties. Anyone _could_ win, but most people stick with the Democratic or Republican candidate, 'cause they figure the other ones don't have a chance of winning, so why waste their vote?"

"Huh," Daniel said.

Robert had assured him that, for a test in which a limited number of possible correct answers was presented to him, basic understanding and the ability to analyze were more important than a list of facts. Daniel had said he should probably study more anyway, since he couldn't walk around forever hoping that people would give him multiple answers from which to choose or that people would only talk about things with which he was familiar. Robert had seemed pleased at that answer, and Sam had reminded him that he should be studying to learn, not just to pass a test.

"You have a lot of laws in this country," Daniel said, because he'd discovered that Jack didn't know theoretical astrophysics or morphological theory, but he knew about this nation and how the rules of daily life and society worked around here. "And they're all written down somewhere and formally codified."

"True," Jack agreed. "And states have their own laws, too."

"But the national laws supersede state laws?"

" _Federal_ laws apply to everyone, no matter what state you're in, but state laws only apply to people living in that state."

"Does everyone know all of them?"

"Well...no, probably not," came the careful answer, "but you really should know the major ones, because if you break one, not knowing won't be an excuse."

"But if you accidentally walk into something and there's a misunderstanding..."

"Not knowing the _situation_ is excusable, sometimes. Not knowing the _law_ is not."

"That's reasonable, I suppose," Daniel said, thinking about a few mission reports he'd read of teams that had stumbled into trouble because of ignorance of the local laws. It was a risk they took just by stepping through the Stargate, really, since the Stargate seemed to play a central role in so many cultures and many of the local peoples were suspicious, or in awe, or just awfully suspicious, about aliens who trespassed through the 'gate. Added to the fact that linguistic barriers often took time to overcome, while being arrested or attacked only took a few seconds or minutes, there was a reason why first-contact teams were considered to be in as much danger as combat-specialized teams.

"But it's not that bad; a lot of the laws are things that make common sense," Jack said.

"Really?" Daniel said doubtfully. "Because the pillows upstairs have pieces of cloth attached that say it's against the law to remove them."

"Only if you remove them and then sell the pillows to someone else," Jack explained. "And it's legal in this state."

Daniel sighed. "Your world is strange."

Jack shrugged as he picked up a newspaper and a pen. "You betcha," he replied.

"Are you doing a...puzzle?" Daniel asked, trying but failing to remember what kind of puzzle it was called. He knew this... Cross-sections. Something that had to do with the way the words intersected. Cruci...something. Crucigram? That sounded almost familiar, but not quite right.

"Yeah. Wanna help?"

"Sure," Daniel said, uncurling from his spot on an armchair while Jack shifted to one side to make space for him. "Oh, _crossword_."

Jack looked at him. Daniel flushed.

"I told Carter I could finish this one without her help," Jack told him.

"Without help, or without _her_ help?" Daniel asked.

"The second one."

Daniel pointed out a few that he knew, but Jack didn't really need that much help, or not help that Daniel could give, anyway; most of the answers had to do with bits of local culture that he didn't know.

Jack wrinkled his brow when they only had one clue left. "Why would someone want a synonym for a gallstone? Starts with _C_ , contains an _L_."

"What's a gallstone?" Daniel asked, peering at the blocks and trying to remember where he'd seen that word before.

"It's a stone in your gall," Jack said. Daniel waited patiently until he clarified, "Something to do with mineral buildup in your--"

"Oh, I remember now. Calculus." At Jack's surprised expression, he explained, "I looked it up, when I was looking up the math term once, so I saw that definition. It's the same root, from a word meaning a kind of stone, but it was used for calculations, see, and..."

"Okay," Jack said, clearly uninterested in the history of calculi. "Ha--take that, Captain."

XXXXX

**_1 March 1999; SGC, Earth; 1100 hrs_ **

_Prophase_ , Daniel recited to himself, staring at a corner of the ceiling of Sam's lab where paint was chipping off, _metaphase, anaphase, telophase._

_Pro_ \--that was obvious, for what came first or before. _Meta-_ for the change in position, _ana_ \- for...up? Apart. Chromosomes moving apart? Daniel frowned; he'd have to find one of the dictionaries later and see exactly what the etymology was. Well, _telos_ was for the end, anyway, which meant that, whatever the historical reasons for the etymology, anaphase was the other part, when the chromosomes moved apart.

Daniel looked up when Dr. Lee's voice rose at the far end of the lab, speeding up and taking on that earnest note that meant he was getting excited about something. Sergeant Siler didn't look like he was listening at all, still bent over something with an enormous wrench in his hand that Daniel sometimes suspected he carried around just to intimidate people, but a moment later, Siler spoke up in answer, his own voice calmer and unruffled as he tightened something on the device.

"The Hulk?" Dr. Lee answered, then looked thoughtful. After a minute, he turned back to one of the sensors he was holding over the device Siler was working on. "Well, it's just that...well, it's been done. And I'm not certain it would be fair to..."

Sam groaned softly, looking up from her laptop computer screen to smile ruefully at Daniel. "And they're off."

"What are they talking about?" Daniel asked, not sorry to put mitosis aside for a moment.

"Oh, just different superheroes. People in here are always having discussions about them."

" _Super_ heroes?" Daniel repeated, putting his elbows on the lab bench and leaning forward curiously at the unfamiliar term. "As opposed to...what, moderately competent heroes?"

She laughed, leaning back in her chair to stretch. "It refers to...usually fictional characters who...uh...have a superhuman power of some kind. And fight for justice."

"No, no, Captain Carter," Dr. Lee protested, apparently having heard. "They don't all have superpowers. For example, Batman was completely human."

Daniel tried to picture what a bat-man would look like and decide how that could possibly be completely human. "Okay," he said dubiously.

"See," Dr. Lee started trying to explain, and then a spark leapt from where Siler was working, and both of them hastily returned to the task at hand.

"I don't get it," Daniel confessed to Sam.

"This isn't something you need to get," she assured him, though this time her voice was low enough not to catch the other two men's attention. " _Some_ people here are far too deeply engrossed in the whole comic book culture--there are hundreds of books about different superheroes, and it gets a little frightening."

Daniel rolled that around his mind, and then asked, "So you never read them?"

"Not really. You can't avoid knowing who characters like...like Superman and Batman are if you live in America for long enough, but I never got into it like they apparently did." She jerked a surreptitious thumb toward the other two. "The things that pass for science in some of those stories, honestly..."

"Huh," Daniel said, resolving to ask someone later who Superman and Batman were. "That's interesting."

"Oh, not you, too," she said, only half teasing.

"Well, it's not that much different from any other iconic figure: someone--with or without superhuman powers--who fights evil. All cultures have figures like that in their legends."

"Still--"

"You let me borrow your Tolkien," he pointed out. "That's not really any different, is it? People with magical abilities or...or who have special talents, who fight for morality or justice."

"But..." she said, looking appalled at the comparison of Gandalf the Grey to a humanoid bat, or whatever it was Dr. Lee had said. "But Tolkien doesn't pretend he can explain Ents and hobbits with vats of green, radioactive substances."

Daniel frowned, sure he was missing part of the reference. "That's true," he conceded. "But my point is, you see it in classic stories everywhere. I think it's a natural part of society for people to want a hero, and those books with, uh, superheroes"--he glanced toward Dr. Lee and Sergeant Siler, who were now somehow plugging the device into a laptop; how did they always manage to _do_ that?--"are just another medium for exploring those ideas."

"Maybe," Sam said. "Personally, I like heroes who didn't choose to _become_ heroes because they were bitten by an arachnid."

Daniel blinked, thinking of what kind of effect arachnids could possibly have and could think of nothing but illness and possible mortality from venom. "Okay, that...does sound bizarre."

"See?" she said primly. When he was still thinking about it a minute later, she asked him why mitosis resulted in diploid cells and meiosis in haploid cells, and he took the hint and opened his biology review book again.

Later, when Sam was focused intently on some model on her computer, he asked Sergeant Siler discreetly, who told him that it was a radioactive spider whose bite changed the main character's genes. Daniel wasn't completely certain that that made any more sense, but the sergeant assured him that it made much more sense if he didn't think too hard about the science. Daniel decided to take his word for it.

XXXXX

**_5 March 1999; SGC, Earth; 1900 hrs_ **

Daniel knocked on Teal'c's door. When it opened, he said, "Are you busy? Can I read in here? Jack's testing some of the new officers at the Academy, and almost everyone else has left or is busy, so..."

Teal'c opened the door wider.

"Did you know that there are books written about _Star Wars_?" he said, as he edged in and sat on the floor against the side of Teal'c's bed. "One of the people in our department was talking about science fiction, and he told me about that, and I thought you might be interested."

Teal'c inclined his head and took a seat on his mattress, which he really only used as a place to sit, anyway, since he didn't sleep and usually performed _kelno'reem_ on the floor. Daniel didn't think that was fair--there was so much time they could all save if all of them could just _kelno'reem_ occasionally when they were tired.

"I do not understand the Tau'ri insistence on using the term 'science fiction,'" Teal'c said.

"Yeah, neither do I, sometimes," Daniel said, looking up at Teal'c's face from the floor. "Maybe I just don't know what's scientifically sound, but I bet Sam could build a light saber if she wanted."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed solemnly.

When Daniel looked around Teal'c's room, he found that there were already two books on his table with the words _Star Wars_ on them, hiding among Tau'ri poetry, which Teal'c enjoyed more than Daniel could understand. "Oh, so you already know about that."

"Captain Carter also believed I would enjoy them," Teal'c said. "Perhaps she enjoys science fiction as well."

"I think she just likes picking out the parts that are scientifically improbable," Daniel said.

"It makes the experience less enjoyable," Teal'c said.

"Sometimes there really are glaring errors, though," Daniel pointed out. "It's like that, too, whenever there's something about some extinct civilization, because they just assume no one will know, just as they assume no one will understand complicated physics. Sometimes, it ends up being very condescending or outright ridiculous."

Teal'c gave him a stony expression that said he'd better not disrupt enjoyable experiences any more than Sam did.

"Okay," Daniel said and opened his book--on creation myths, because he'd studied chemistry all day--while Teal'c reached over and picked out a book for himself.

Later, Teal'c put in a movie that Jack had given him about an archaeologist who seemed to have been named after one of the United States. Daniel wrapped himself in one of Teal'c's blankets and watched from the foot of the bed. He wondered why Jack had movies about archaeologists but quickly discovered that archaeology wasn't the main point of the film.

Sam wandered in a few minutes later and tugged at the blanket until Daniel shared it with her. When Daniel asked a question, she answered and then complained about feminine stereotypes. He asked her about her job, then, because didn't she say women weren't completely equal in the military, and when she began to answer, Teal'c glared at them until they both shut up and watched the movie.

Jack didn't get back from tormenting recruits until the movie was over. "What is this, a slumber party?" he asked.

"We are not slumbering," Teal'c told him.

"Have you ever built a light saber?" Daniel asked Sam, remembering the discussion from hours ago.

She frowned at him. "Don't even get me started on the...the improbability of a sword-like weapon of definite length using a high-intensity laser powered by a source that--I mean, even if we substitute 'laser' with something more plausible, there are still all sorts of problems, and any society that could overcome them could undoubtedly engineer a steel blade to--"

"Okay," Jack said loudly, waving a hand. "When you say not to get you started...don't get started."

"Right," Sam said, huffing.

"No science right now," Jack declared. "You too, Daniel." He sauntered in and said, "The most important question of this slumber party is... Have you people ever seen _The Wizard of Oz_?" Sam rolled her eyes, but out of Jack's sight.

Daniel didn't think _The Wizard of Oz_ was the slumbering type of entertainment--it was _weird_ , though it did explain some expressions he'd never understood before--but it was late and everyone was tired by the time they reached the end, so they each ended up slumbering in a different corner of Teal'c's room. Daniel stayed awake long enough to see Teal'c put himself into _kelno'reem_ until morning, and then closed his eyes, too.

Jack and Sam were both gone when he woke the next morning, but Teal'c poked him with a _bashaak_ training staff until he got up and kept poking him all the way to the gym.

XXXXX

**_10 March 1999; SGC, Earth; 1400 hrs_ **

Sam raised her eyebrows. "Well?"

Daniel cleared his throat. Scratched his head. "You just said, 'show me your ape.'"

"Ape?" she repeated. "Like the primate?"

"A female one," he added.

"I thought you said that was 'stone deposit,'" she said, frustrated. " _Hatet_."

"That's 'ape,'" he explained again. " 'Mine,' or 'stone deposit,' is _ħatet._ It's the initial consonant. Listen: _hatet, ħatet_. Hear the difference?"

Sam bit her lip. "Not...well, kinda," she said, but a little dubiously. "Barely. But I don't get what you're doing differently."

"It's..." Daniel said, then said both words again, to himself, looking for the difference so he could put it into words. "It's just in a different part of your throat."

"See, that makes no sense," she said. "I'm pretty sure the airflow goes all the way through my throat without skipping any part. And they sound practically the same--you're telling me that's the difference between primates and mines?"

"They sound similar to you just because those sounds don't mean different things in English, that's all. But it's an important distinction in Abydonian."

"The colonel doesn't have trouble with this," she said, frowning.

"Jack speaks some languages from the same family as Ancient Egyptian, or at least with similar phonemic differences," he said. "And he doesn't pay attention to the grammar, so he messes that up a lot more than you do, Sam."

"It doesn't matter whether or not I understand the grammar if I keep talking about apes when I'm looking for naquadah mines."

Daniel bit his lip and tried not to laugh at the uncharacteristically dispirited look on her face. Sam wasn't used to finding things she wasn't good at learning. "Okay, just...think about where you're making the sounds. Where they're coming out of. Like...uh...okay. There's air, right?"

"Well," she said. "I should hope so."

"Just _listen_ , Sam. There's air moving through your throat, and it makes a sound when it passes part of it. You can kind of...feel it going through." He rubbed one palm across the other. "Like friction, against the side of your throat. Fricative. Friction."

She tilted her head. "Wait. You're talking about laminar airflow that becomes turbulent in a section of the oral tract. Because the cross-sectional area decreases."

"Whuh," Daniel said, thinking he should have tried reading through one of those phonetics books in the linguistics office, the ones that were about the physics of making sounds. He'd never bothered before, because he'd grown up knowing by feel the subtle ways that phonemes differed from each other, and it was instinctive for him, for the most part; he'd never had to think about the physical mechanisms before. "I have no idea, but it's like the throat gets smaller at one point and the air...has a harder time getting through. So it ends up scraping against the sides of...Sam!"

Sam was biting her lip, and Daniel had the feeling she was trying not to laugh at him, now.

"That's how I imagine it," he said sheepishly.

"Sorry," she said, schooling her expression. "All right. That makes sense."

Dubious, he said, "Really?"

"Yeah. So I just have to figure out where to make my throat smaller."

"Or your mouth, or wherever you make the sound," he agreed. "And then if you practice enough, after a while you don't have to think about...tongue placement or anything anymore."

"You ever consider putting together a reference for Ancient Egyptian?" she asked. "Those Goa'uld ones have been useful."

"We have. We've been talking about a lot different language resources to make available to everyone in the program, but we're still trying to figure out the best way to handle dialectal differences in Egyptian," he answered. "Are you avoiding practicing now, Captain-Doctor?"

Sam did laugh then. "Of course not, Mr. Jackson," she said, and then, slowly, with the vowels a little off but comprehensible, " _Na nay_."

" _Nafi_ ," he replied, turning back to the consonants that English speakers seemed to have so much trouble differentiating.

By the time they stopped, Daniel was trying to explain why ejective consonants sounded sharper than others, and that in some dialects it was a voicing difference more than a laryngeal movement, and that _yes, Sam, it's really, really important_ , because that was the only difference between the word for a container of grain and the word for an invasion.

They practiced the fricatives again, the ones that all sounded like ' _h_ ' to Sam, before she left to go back to her own work. Robert walked in, then, and asked why they were talking about apes.

"Don't ask," Daniel said.

"We'll just let Teal'c talk off-world," Sam sighed.

XXXXX

**_15 March 1999; SGC, Earth; 1300 hrs_ **

"So," Sam said during lunch, "it turns out that it controls the weather."

"Really," Daniel said, only half-listening. "Hm..."

"Okay, easy," she said, leaning over his hands. "Easy...take your time..."

"Sam, you're blocking the...I can't see," Daniel protested.

"You don't need to see," she pointed out, holding the padlock steady for him as he painstakingly maneuvered a pin inside it, though she did move her head out of the way. "There's not much _to_ see. You've got to feel your way around."

Daniel sighed. "It didn't take you this long. Am I doing this right?"

"It's not like _I_ can see inside there, either," she reminded him. "Just take your time."

"Carter?" Jack's voice said.

"Colonel!"

" _Sa_ -am!" Daniel complained as she dropped the lock. " _Ay_."

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Carter," Jack said again, this time in greeting, as he dropped a lunch tray on the table and took a seat. "Daniel. What's up?"

"Sam's teaching me how to pick locks," Daniel explained.

"Why?" he asked.

"It can be a useful skill," Sam said.

"For burglars?" Jack said.

"I've used it a few times in the past," she said. When Jack's eyebrows rose, she added hastily, "On my _own_ house, sir! When I've locked myself out. And locksmiths learn to pick locks for the same reason."

Jack's eyes shifted toward Daniel, who admitted, "I was just bored."

"You're picking locks for fun?" Jack asked.

"Maybe it's a geek thing," she said.

"Geeks," Jack told them.

"Hey," Daniel said indignantly.

Jack raised his eyebrows. " _She_ just called you a geek. And Rothman does it, too."

"It's different, sir," Sam explained patiently. "The connotations are different, geek-to-geek."

Daniel gave up on the lock and started peeling his orange to avoid laughing at Jack's expression. Fruits on Abydos weren't nearly the same as those on Earth, and he'd rarely had access to so many fruits in such abundance without having to dry or preserve them. Sam thought the commissary should stock more, fresher fruits. Daniel thought there were plenty already, but he supposed it was relative.

"Anyway," Sam said, picking up a spoon to start on her cup of Jell-o as she continued telling him about their last mission, "like I was saying, it was a weather controller of some sort. They've already started setting up an off-world research station there to try to figure out how it works."

"What do they call the device?" Daniel asked, ripping through the peel slowly to savor the smell.

Jack caught onto their conversation and said, "The Touching-stone. Or something like that, according to the Madronan interpreter. Because, see"--Jack held out his hand to demonstrate, like he was clutching something in the palm--"it's like a kind of stone. And this guy touches it to make it work."

"I got that," Daniel told him.

"Can you imagine how amazing that kind of technology would be if we could reverse-engineer it?" Sam said. "Coasts would never have to worry about a tsunami again."

"Desert communities would have plentiful rain," Daniel said.

"Ski resorts could always be in season," Jack added.

"It's too bad we don't have a clue how it works," Sam said unhappily. "It looks even more ancient in origin than Goa'uld technology, and we're completely in the dark. In fact, it's like only one person there is able to use it. I'm starting to think it must be something about him--something genetic, maybe, that allows him to use it."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "He's not human?"

"He is, as far as I can tell," she said. "It's more likely some relatively minor mutation or a rare allele, possibly something that's been lost from their gene pool over time. But they've refused to let us collect biological samples, so we can't even test that."

"You can't bring the Touching-stone back to study?" Daniel asked. "Is it too big or something?"

"I wish we could," she said wistfully, "but it's linked closely to their planet and their weather. They probably wouldn't survive the storm if we took it away from them."

"Sucks," Jack said.

"Yeah," Daniel agreed, then reached for Sam's lock and her picking tools.

"Aht!" Jack snatched them away and pocketed them.

"Jack!"

"Sir," Sam protested, her fingers twitching like she wanted to grab them back. Jack rolled his eyes and gave her the pick and torque wrench, but kept the lock.

"Not at the table, kids," Jack said. "I'll give it back when you're done with your food. And, Carter, tell me you're eating something for lunch besides sweetened cow parts."

Daniel frowned. "She's eating Jell-o, Jack."

"What d'you think that's made of, Daniel?"

He looked at the cube of brightly colored dessert balanced on Sam's spoon. "Really?" he asked her.

"It's not... _really_..." she said. "Well, it's...collagen. That's a common protein. And Jell-o collagen mostly comes from sources like cow hooves or bones. You find it in all animals. It's not all that different from other bovine food products. It's just hydrolyzed protein, in the form of a gel."

"But...it's blue," he said, bemused.

"That's artificial coloring," she explained.

Jack raised a sage eyebrow. Daniel was glad he'd never particularly liked Jell-o to begin with and finished peeling his orange.

Later, Teal'c joined them with a heavily loaded tray. "Did you know that's from a cow?" Daniel asked him, pointing a wedge of orange at one of the three cups of Jell-o.

"I did not," Teal'c said, and dug happily into his colored cow protein.

XXXXX

**_22 March 1999; SGC, Earth; 0730 hrs_ **

The shadow looming over Daniel made him freeze where he was crouched.

"Did you lose the key?" Robert asked, blinking down at him.

"Uh," Daniel said, then turned the wrench in the keyhole and pushed the door open. "Yes! I mean, 'no' about the key," he amended, then ducked to avoid being kicked in the head as Robert stepped over him and into the office. "You're early."

"You're hanging around the engineers too much," Robert retorted, then sat down at his desk. "I forgot something here and didn't think of it until I woke up this morning, so, I figured I should come in and...Crap. Where is it? No, not you, Daniel, I'm talking to myself."

Daniel brushed dust from his trouser leg and sat in front of his own desk as he waited for Robert to find whatever he had misplaced this time. When he became bored watching, he pulled out a notepad and a textbook and idly copied Newton's laws into IPA, first in his own accent, and then in Robert's.

He looked up when Robert stalked out irritably, only to return several minutes later, looking much more satisfied and holding a folder in his hand.

"I made a mistake on a translation," Robert explained. "Wanted to fix it before someone else got hands on it. You know, if people had told me in college what I'd be doing for a living..."

"...you would've told them they were crazy," Daniel filled in, because everyone around here said that. He was probably the only person here who had half-expected and half-hoped to be doing something like this all his life. That wasn't actually as impressive as it seemed the first time Jack had pointed it out to him, since some people here had been out of college for longer than his life.

"Did you finish those practice tests this weekend?"

"Yes," he said, and then watched Robert look at the clock, see it was still early, and then take the tests from him and start checking over them. "You know," he said, joking but probing as well to see if he was right, "sometimes I think people are making me take these GED tests to delay my being fully a part of the SGC."

Without raising his head, Robert answered, "Yeah, I think so, too."

Taken aback, and not a little angry, Daniel said, "What--are you serious? After everything that's...?"

"Hey, I didn't say _I_ was one of those people, just that it may have been part of certain people's reasoning. I wouldn't be surprised, is all."

"But--"

"It's for your _own_ sake, Daniel. Keeps you out of danger longer until you're better trained and more experienced. More ready for it. Personally, _I_ just want you to go to college," Robert said.

"What if I don't stay here? To go to college or anything?"

"Then you don't. Whatever. But you can if you want. That's the whole point."

Daniel wanted to say that he wasn't leaving the SGC to get a degree while Skaara and Sha'uri were _out there_ somewhere, and that he had no idea what he would do once they were found, because there would be a home to return to, but there would always be someone else _out there_ , too, and worlds to find and explore, and people to help and who could help them, and the Goa'uld and maybe others to fight. Wasn't that why everyone was here?

Robert looked up. "Look, if you'd been born here, you'd probably be way ahead of everyone and in a few years, you'd be some famous up-and-comer in linguistics, or whatever field you picked."

"This is about the alternate me again, isn't it," Daniel said, barely biting back irritation. "Robert, I _wasn't_ born here, and no matter what, I'm still--"

"This isn't about him, Daniel; it's about _your_ _potential_. I'm a...an assistant to an assistant to a professor who got this job because the SGC really needed someone and I happened to be there when they went to see my boss. So--"

"You're good at this," Daniel said, frowning. "They wouldn't have recruited you without good reason."

Robert nodded. "Yeah, but I can't teach you everything, even about archaeology, and it's not fair if I pretend I can. And you're already past me in language."

"No, I'm not, not in theoretical linguistics."

"But in practice. How long's it been since you needed my help to decipher a new language, at least one with roots you know?"

Daniel watched him grade for another minute before saying, "But..."

"What?"

"I want to go back to Abydos eventually," Daniel said. "It's still...eventually, I mean, not soon, probably, and I don't know about...long-term anything, but it's still my home. And I'm not an exile there, like Teal'c is from his home; I can go back when the war's over."

"Doesn't mean you can't get a good education first," Robert said easily. "It's a few years, not a lifelong commitment. People go overseas to go to college all the time, and I promise you, the trip through the Stargate is a lot shorter."

"But more expensive, I hear."

"Not when you open the wormhole from Abydos. Just think about it."

They were both silent until Robert finished, when he gathered the papers together and said, "Did you time yourself?"

"Yes," Daniel replied.

"I marked a couple you got wrong." He handed them back, but before letting go, he added, "Look, it's an option. You decide not to, no one's going to make you. Just think about it, okay?"

"Okay," Daniel said, still dubious, but promising to himself that he'd think about it, sometime. "Maybe. Not now, though."

"No, it's too late in the year to even think about applying anywhere," Robert agreed, even though that wasn't why, then shrugged. "Sometime, maybe. Whenever--you've got time. Granted, any recommendation you got would only be able to say that all you've ever done is top secret..."

Daniel grinned. "And it'd be from a former assistant to an assistant to a professor--"

"You should meet him," Robert interrupted.

"Meet whom?"

"My graduate advisor. There's a conference I was going to attend in the fall to catch up on recent research, maybe scope out a couple of people to recruit, you know? It's at the Oriental Institute. Maybe you can come, too. I'll introduce you to Professor Jordan, Steven, Sarah, and whatever other poor schmucks they've found to do grunt work around the lab...what do you think?"

"A conference," Daniel repeated.

Robert nodded. "About Ancient Egypt."

"Completely about...?"

"Yep. Days of it."

"Really?" Daniel asked skeptically. "At every conference I've seen on Earth, most people stop paying attention after a few minutes of talk about Ancient Egypt."

"That's because all you've ever seen on Earth is a military base," Robert said, which was a lie, but essentially true in this context. "Really. We'll go to one of the symposia this year. See what it's like to be in a room full of people who care about Egyptology. Sit in on one of the professor's classes, even, just to see what it's like."

XXXXX

**_31 March 1999; SGC, Earth; 0630 hrs_ **

"I don't see why I can't just finish it all in one day," Daniel grumbled, drinking coffee out of a Styrofoam cup, because it was _early_.

"Because it's five tests, and your skinny little butt would start to hurt from sitting there so long," Jack said.

Daniel wanted to retort something, but he couldn't figure out which part was supposed to be the insult, and by the time he had a response, the moment had passed. And it was early, _naturu_. Sometimes, he liked it better when he was constantly 'gate-lagged, because being fixed on a sleep cycle for several weeks made it harder to break the pattern.

"Someone'll pick you up and drive you back to base when you're done," Jack said. "We might not be back from PJ2-whatever by then, so it might be Rothman if he's free or..."

"It's fine," Daniel assured him, yawning and thinking that he should really remember which of the GED tests he was supposed to take today, because that would probably be a good first step in trying to pass them.

"You ready?"

"I'm ready."

"If it's not one of us picking you up, don't get into the car unless--"

"Jack," Daniel complained. "I _know_. Go have fun on the planet."

"Good luck," Jack answered, his hands in his pockets and that tiny smile on his lips that meant he might be thinking something sarcastic, or possibly something smug, or maybe just meant 'good luck.' It was about the body language, really, and it was hard to tell with Jack, but these days, Daniel was pretty sure he got it.


	23. Medical Considerations

**_2 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

"Ten miles?" Rothman moaned. "I have to march ten miles to pick up a probe?"

"A fancy probe," Jack clarified. "That flies. An _expensive_ , fancy probe that--"

"Didn't look like it was flying too well after it hit that plant."

"Yeah," Jack said, "which is why we're going to go pick it up instead of...flying it back." He made a zooming motion with his hand for emphasis.

Rothman groaned. "Ten miles there and back."

"Problem, Dr. Decathlete?" he asked. "And there are people on that planet, too."

"I'm not the people person around here," Rothman protested sourly. "Why do you think I want to join SG-11?"

"So you can play in the dirt with the other boys and girls," Jack snapped, but it was a valid point. Of the two geeks who occupied the office space of power in the archaeo-linguistics department, Daniel was the one who liked talking to living people, and if he hadn't been off taking the last of his GEDs now, this was the kind of seemingly safe mission they would have given him instead of Rothman. "Well, you'd better stop putting off your damn marksmanship test already. You pass that and finish this mission without screwing up, and you'll get approval from me and the general and everyone else to go join Hawkins' team for good. Thank God."

"Hey, I'm not the one who insisted on coming, Colonel."

"For the record," Jack said, looking at his watch, "neither am I. Captain Carter's going to pick up her UAV, and you're going to talk to the locals, and Teal'c and I are going to make sure the naked, bald, white aliens don't kill us."

Rothman grimaced and opened half of the pockets on his vest before he found the one where his inhaler had been stored, then promptly stuffed it back in. Jack would have bet a substantial sum of money that the man wouldn't be able to find it again in five minutes.

Carter walked in, adjusting the strap on her GDO. "Carter," he called happily. "Finally."

As Jack walked through the event horizon, he heard Rothman asking, "Uh, you did say that there's plant--"

XXXXX

**_2 April 1999; PJ2-445; 0805 hrs_ **

"--life on this planet? Oh, crap."

There was an impressively explosive sneeze.

Jack also found himself reluctantly impressed that Rothman had learned to talk while walking through a wormhole. He'd had to practice that himself to get the breathing right and not choke when they came out the other end. It tended to ruin the effect when he coughed out the last part of the sentence.

"I'd estimate about three hours to get to the UAV crash site, sir," Carter said, looking up from her handheld sensor. "I'm not picking up the locating signal, but it should be this way."

"Lead the way, Captain," he said, gesturing.

By the time they were an hour into their trek, Rothman had migrated toward Carter's position, where polite but stilted conversation drifted back to Jack and Teal'c. There was a difference between the two scientists: Carter could get pissed off at some piece of equipment when it didn't work, but when she got pissed, she got determined; when Rothman got pissed, he got pissy. Jack would never tell her she got a little pissy sometimes, too, because, unlike Rothman, she might kick his ass, and then she'd still fix the problem anyway.

But there were bald, naked aliens, so Rothman they had. Who knew--maybe they spoke Greek or something. They'd seen weirder things.

It took more like two and a half hours before Jack spotted the whitish piece of plant life lying broken on the ground. Carter trotted off immediately to crouch over the plant.

"Carter," he started, "why don't you start--"

"Sir," she interrupted, not looking up from where she was cutting away a small chunk of the thing, "plant life on Earth accounts for more than eighty percent of our medicinal resources. We should really check it out."

Jack acquiesced with a suppressed sigh and watched her bag samples and bottle sap. By then, Teal'c had found the trail of the UAV--which wasn't hard to see, since it was a large, fancy probe that had been dragged through loose dirt--so they started off after the wayward probe.

Apparently, the plants grew only in certain areas, and as they continued onward, Jack found himself stepping carefully around more and more little white bits on the ground that Carter speculated were sprouts that hadn't yet grown to that massive height of the other plants.

They froze in their tracks when the first alien appeared.

Carter froze, anyhow, and then Teal'c's soft "O'Neill" stopped Jack. Rothman didn't notice until the alien walked up into his face.

"Whoa!" the archaeologist said, stumbling back in surprise, then sneezed.

The alien jumped, looking alarmed, then took off running, emitting an odd, high-pitched, _"Eeee!"_ noise as he (it?) went.

Okay. So.

"We...should probably follow that guy," Jack said, bemused.

"What was that sound he was making?" Carter said. So they were going with _'he.'_ "If there was any doubt that they're not human, I guess there isn't anymore."

"But human _oid_ ," Rothman added, patting his pockets until he found a tissue. "I wonder what kind of selective pressures would cause evolution to...well, to what we see here. Or maybe they've evolved from one of our ancestors, but along a different path."

Jack suppressed the urge to tell Rothman about the kind of selective pressure that could be exerted on absentminded archaeological consultants and followed Teal'c in the direction that the odd alien had fled. "Threat assessment, anyone?"

"He didn't seem to be hostile so much as he was curious, sir," Carter offered, "and he certainly seemed scared of us."

"Unless he just headed off to find reinforcements," Rothman suggested, "and they'll all come back in a few minutes to kill us."

"I'll take that as a 'no clue,'" Jack muttered.

The alien's trail led them to what looked like a village of sorts, but with structures so simple that even Rothman couldn't find any fancy architectural skills to call it anything but--

"Primitive dwellings," the archaeologist said, then amended, "Maybe. It's hard to judge without knowing more about them. For all we know, they have an entirely different set of values, and whatever criteria we're using to call them primitive may not apply. I mean, look at them--I can't even tell how they reproduce."

Jack turned to him, incredulous. "I don't _want_ to know how they reproduce."

"Children and species propagation play an important role in a society's values. I'm not asking you to watch," Rothman said, and Jack physically stopped himself from cringing.

"Uh, sir?" Carter said as two more aliens, then three, and then many more, emerged from their hut-like dwellings.

The aliens all looked similar, more or less, in that they were all naked, bald, and white. They were all silent, too, now that no one was making any weird noises. They were also beginning to creep toward them, heads turning in curiosity.

"Colonel?" Rothman added nervously.

"Easy," Jack warned, his own hand on his weapon but not threatening, yet.

"They appear to be unarmed," Teal'c observed.

"Rothman, want to try talking?"

"Uh," Rothman said, edging slowly away. He raised both of his open hands, waggling one slightly from side to side in a wave. "Hi?"

The aliens looked at each other, then raised their hands as well, a few hands wiggling in imitation.

What the hell?

"They might not talk at all the same way we do," Carter pointed out, taking a few uncomfortable steps away herself as they continued to close in. She backed away a little more. "There was that noise that first one made, so I think it's safe to assume their vocal apparatus is...uh, different...um...okay, sir, this is getting a little too cozy..." Her hands began to rise as if to defend herself as two of the aliens peered closely at her face, their mouths opening and closing soundlessly.

"Hey, now!" Jack moved toward his teammates, ready to push the aliens away if need be, but his sudden movement was enough to make them scatter. They retreated back into their dwellings, all of them beginning to make the strange, shrieking noise again. Jack caught a glimpse of a few terrified faces before they all disappeared.

"Huh," Rothman said, pushing his glasses up and muffling another sneeze in the sleeve. "Man, these plants must have a _lot_ of pollen."

Carter looked guilty now. "We scared them. They probably weren't going to hurt us at all."

"I am in agreement," Teal'c said, frowning. "However, I am not fond of their manner of greeting."

A bald head peeked out of the entrance of one dwelling, saw them watching, and pulled back with a squeak.

"Dr. Rothman," Jack said, "any sort of...cultural goodies we can learn from these guys?"

"Well, off the bat, I'm inclined to say they don't have much in the way of any technology that we don't have," Rothman said, "and I'm starting to doubt they speak any language we speak. Even gestures--they just seem to imitate our movements without comprehending the underlying significance, but we really don't know anything about them. Maybe with some more time..." He trailed off doubtfully.

Nodding, Jack ordered, "Carter, Teal'c, stick together and see if you can find any signs of the UAV. Rothman, we'll go and take another crack at communicating."

As soon as they stepped inside the dwelling, six startled heads turned toward them at once. "Uh," Rothman said. "Hi."

"Tried that one," Jack reminded him as the aliens didn't move and continued to stare at them.

The archaeologist swallowed and said, " _Tek'ma'tek_?"

Blinks. Tilted heads. Mouths opening and closing.

And on it went. Jack could feel a headache forming from all the meaningless mutterings and a few aborted attempts at written communication.

"Not only do they not understand any language I know, but they don't even seem to get that I'm trying to communicate," Rothman said eventually in frustration, throwing up a hand for emphasis. The aliens threw up their hands in return. "I've had more success communicating with dogs."

"Do you communicate with dogs often?" Jack asked. He received a scowl in answer. "Getting anywhere?"

"Well, maybe. I mean," Rothman hedged, then admitted, "Um...no."

"Well, that's too bad. Let's move o--"

One alien collapsed.

"Uh," Rothman said.

Jack reached up to his radio. "Carter, get over here. Looks like one of them's...sick or something."

Rothman knelt by the fallen alien, his training, or maybe the habit of seeing things like this, overcoming whatever nervousness he still had. He cautiously lifted a wrist. "Uh-oh," he said, then moved his fingers to the alien's carotid and said, "There's no pulse. I mean, that I can find. But, you know, he's...he's, he's breathing, so maybe his arteries aren't in the same--"

"Colonel!" Carter called from outside.

"In here," Jack said, not looking away from the fallen alien. The other aliens were beginning to bend over him now, just as Carter hurriedly ducked inside the dwelling

"What happened, sir?"

"No clue," Jack answered. Rothman backed away as Carter took his place.

Just as Teal'c entered, all of the aliens standing around lifted their faces, standing perfectly still, and _sang_.

Well. It was an odd sort of song, and it had nothing on Puccini, as far as Jack was concerned. But it was all harmony and steady and...and something that Jack couldn't really bring himself to think of as yelling or screaming or shrieking. Then they stopped, and nothing happened.

"Music soothes the savage...?" Rothman started to say tentatively, but then stopped before the metaphor became too obviously useless. Anyway, the fallen alien on the ground didn't move, and then another one collapsed next to him.

"Oh, no," Carter said, making an abortive movement to check on the other fallen alien. "I don't even know how to find out what's wrong. Their physiology... For all we know, _we_ could be making them sick. Sir, this could be completely our fault."

Foreign microbes. Fraiser had said something about it after the fiasco with the Touched virus, and now... "You're right. Teal'c, you and I are going back to the Stargate--get a medical team over here. Carter, Rothman...keep...trying to communicate. Ask about the UAV, provide first aid if you can."

"Uh-huh," Rothman said dubiously. "Right."

"Yes, sir," Carter added, but for once, Jack thought Rothman might be closer to the truth.

XXXXX

**_2 April 1999; PJ2-445; 1830 hrs_ **

The trip was shorter when it was only Jack and Teal'c, the pace deliberately fast. It was longer, though, with the medical team, Dr. Fraiser's determination not enough to compensate fully for her shorter legs as she pushed along, calling orders behind her, all ' _Let's go!_ ' and ' _Hurry it up, Corporal!_ ' Teal'c seemed to approve.

Jack would, normally, and hey, power to the tiny woman who could wield scalpels and ran like she meant business even on her first trip off-world, but he'd gone twenty miles that day and was closing in on thirty, which wasn't too extraordinary...but was it getting hot?

He willed his stomach to stay put and his head not to fall off his shoulders and pretended he wasn't having trouble catching up to someone a foot shorter than he was. Maybe he was coming down with something.

When Fraiser finally took one of the aliens with her back to the SGC, Carter thought it would be wrong to just leave the rest of them, without anyone who might be able to provide at least some limited help, so somehow, Jack had ended up sitting against the side of one of their huts, Carter inside, and Teal'c standing guard. Rothman had gone back to help fill in the medical personnel on the little they knew about the planet.

If he'd thought before that getting the aliens to talk was a headache... Jack grimaced and leaned his head back against the wall of the hut.

" _God_. Goddammit!" Carter's voice growled from inside the house several hours into the whole doing nothing part of the day. Jack felt his eyebrows shoot up at the language, and he stood just as she stomped out of the dwelling, pinching the bridge of her nose but not injured.

"Problem, Captain?"

"No," she snapped. "Not a damn _problem_ in sight. Jesus Christ."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow of his own while Jack felt irritation beginning to boil to the surface. "That's 'not a problem, _sir_ ,'" he reminded her, feeling his teeth grit against the headache that had been blooming in his skull all day and was now in full glory.

"Sir," she said, but in that resentful way she might talk to...well, no one, actually. When Carter was mad at a superior officer, she was subtle about it, and dammit, whatever brains she had that Jack didn't, he'd thought she respected him, at least. "What are we going to do? _Sir_."

"How should I know, _Captain_?" he retorted.

Carter opened her mouth to say something, then took a deep breath and turned away angrily.

Well, geez. "Hey," Jack said, "I want to figure this out, too, you know."

"Could've fooled me," Carter muttered.

"What was that? I could've sworn you were being insubordinate."

"Oh, come on!" she burst out, whirling again to glare at him. "Their world is dying, Colonel, and you think I'm worried about being insubordinate?"

"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?" he snapped back.

"You could...something!" she said. "That's just so typical. You're always ready with a smart remark, _sir_ , but sitting around when we should be trying to do _something_..."

Jack didn't let his jaw drop the way it was trying to. "Do _something_?"

"Where's my...?" She trailed off again, darting back inside the dwelling and returning about four seconds later with her pack, which she dropped unceremoniously onto the ground to start digging through it. Jack would have asked what the hell she though she could measure that she hadn't done in the hours they'd been here already, except that he found he didn't really care.

"Captain Carter," Teal'c said, half reprimand and half alarm. Carter glared at him, too, but pulled out a multimeter, looking around as if trying to find something for which she could measure the voltage, then put it back, searching for something else.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud, Carter!" Jack barked. "You want a smart remark? How about, you can't fix everything with your mile-high IQ or your damned PhD! They're getting sick, and our sticking around here isn't going to help anything!"

"God, Colonel, you know, you can be really--!" she started, surging up with her fists clenched. And then she swayed, and only Teal'c's quick reflexes stopped her from hitting the ground.

Annoyance fled, chased by worry. "Carter? You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, but not very convincingly, and while she was standing on her own, she was pale and took her time shrugging Teal'c off. "I just...just stood up too fast."

On the tip of Jack's tongue, there was a sarcastic reply waiting, something about the difference between jumping to attention and jumping down his throat, but she grimaced, massaging her temple with one hand as she pulled away from Teal'c. A suspicion crept in, and he asked, "Headache?"

"Uh, yes, sir," she admitted.

Dismay settled into Jack's gut. "Me, too," he said. "How long?"

Startled eyes met his. "Around when we got to this...uh, village. It's been getting worse."

Teal'c looked over both of them. "I remain unaffected."

"Sir, you don't think we're...?"

"Getting whatever they've got?" Jack finished with an uneasy look toward the sick aliens, feeling a little like he wanted to take a dive toward the ground, too. "Maybe."

"So it's not something we brought to the planet," Carter said.

"Oh, good," he snapped as his head throbbed. "That'll be comforting when everyone here's dead, and Rothman sneezes on someone back on Earth, so we can kill two planets at once!"

"Colonel!"

"O'Neill," Teal'c growled in warning.

An alien--one of the ones who were still upright--walked close into Jack's face, his eyes opened wide in his pale face and a hand waving in the air.

"Um," Carter said.

"I...think we should probably head back, get checked out," Jack said.

"I will remain," Teal'c said.

Carter swallowed hard and nodded wordlessly. Jack squinted into the distance, in the direction the Stargate lay, and heard a voice in his head that sounded a lot like Robert Rothman protesting that it was _ten whole miles, are you kidding me?_

XXXXX

**_2 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 2145 hrs_ **

Jack and Carter were both declared 'fine' once they arrived back on base, besides a case of severe embarrassment. Whatever they'd had was gone, and Carter escaped to her lab, red-faced and muttering something about analyzing readings.

The alien, on the other hand, was dying.

Fraiser was making noises about making him comfortable, as much as they could without knowing what made their species comfortable; Carter was alternating between visiting the alien and measuring everything she could measure, wherever Jack wasn't; and Rothman had gone back to his office, where Daniel had apparently returned and had spent the last few hours acquainting himself with the planet, the mission, and the aliens via the short UAV video feed and whatever else he could wheedle out of people.

Jack had barely reached Rothman and Daniel's office when raised voices reached his ears.

"... _nothing_ on that tape, Robert!" Daniel was insisting as Jack looked inside. "I don't even remember how many times I've watched it by now. We're wasting time!"

Rothman rolled his eyes. "I'm just going to take a look, in case you missed something."

"Oh, in case I _missed_ something," Daniel said, unfolding his arms and slashing at the air with one hand while the other made a violent movement that knocked a folder off his desk. "I've had this tape here for hours, and you think I...I messed up or...or...or--"

"Hey, not like it's never happened before!" Rothman snapped. "You're not perfect, I'm just--"

"I didn't say I was perfect! You're always happy to remind me if I forget."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't have a degree," Daniel said, his voice rising. "I wasn't born here. I--I, I don't know, I don't speak a hundred languages like I could if I left the program and went to--"

"I did _not_ say that," Rothman said, stepping in close to scowl more effectively, only to step back when the difference in their heights ruined the effect. "Maybe you should try to remember once in a while who's in charge here! Things can't always go the way we want--"

"The way we _want_?" Daniel repeated, almost shouting now. "A, a...a planet, Robert, _yi shay_ , an entire _planet_!"

"That's not even a sentence," Rothman said snidely. "There's no predicate, for one--"

"Headache?" Jack interrupted loudly. Both whirled on him.

"No," Daniel lied mulishly, leaning shakily against his desk and swallowing hard.

"Yes," Rothman said.

"A little," Daniel amended.

"Yeah," Jack said, as casually as he could while considering what it meant that this disease or whatever it was could cause people on base--even people who hadn't ever stepped foot on PJ2-445--to start being affected. "That's what I thought. You might have whatever Carter and I got back on that planet. Possibly even what those aliens on the planet have. Infirmary, both of you." When they hesitated, he repeated more firmly, " _Now_!"

Daniel winced and Rothman paled a little, but both made it out of the office without falling on their faces. Jack was taking that as a good sign.

...x...

"I can't find anything wrong with either of you," Fraiser said once Rothman and Daniel were slouching together on a gurney.

"Actually, I feel fine, now," Rothman said.

"So do I," Daniel added, fidgeting and already starting to slide off the gurney.

"And Carter and I got better as soon as we got off the planet," Jack said. "So, what, there's a disease that's confined to PJ2-445 and...your office?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Rothman. "You didn't bring anything back from there, did you?"

"No, Colonel, we've been going over the UAV data and rehashing the mission for hours--"

"Wait, wait, wait," Daniel said, standing and pushing away from the gurney. "That UAV video is the one thing in common with the planet."

Rothman nodded. "Could there be something in the video that...?" He made a vague gesture with his hand. "You know, something we couldn't see, but it, uh..."

"Made everyone sick?" Jack finished, glancing at Fraiser. She shrugged helplessly. "Let's take a look, then. Someone page Captain Carter up to Rothman's office. And," he added, raising his voice as the archaeologist and his tagalong began to follow him out the door, "no insults this time."

XXXXX

**_3 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 0300 hrs_ **

The end was a little anticlimactic. There was a sound the aliens needed to survive, and, surprise, they'd screwed it up by flying a UAV into the plant that made the sound. The aliens got better, the plants got happier, Rothman grumbled, Carter added a 'sir' to every sentence on the way back to the 'gate, and Jack swore never to let her send a UAV through the 'gate again.

He didn't actually think he'd be able to prevent that, but if one got lost, he was not going to be one who took a team to try to find it. All they'd gotten out of this trip was a lost, expensive, flying probe and the knowledge that Carter apparently had as much of a social life as he did, if she was using plants as her conversational partners. Teal'c simply looked amused by all of them. Daniel had watched them come back through the 'gate in one piece, waved sleepily, and gone off in the direction of his room.

The post-mission exam was unusually awkward. All of them were fine--ironically, Teal'c was in the worst shape, for once, and only because his eardrums were sensitive to a slightly larger range of frequencies than normal humans', and even _he_ was basically fine aside from mild, temporary tinnitus.

"Carter," Jack said as they yawned their way through exams, "so when we were on the planet--"

"Colonel, I'm...I'm sorry about my attitude," she interrupted, then widened her eyes when she realized she'd cut him off, and repeated. "Sorry, sir."

"No, it's..." he rubbed the back of his neck and wished Teal'c would stop smirking at them. "Never mind. We were both under the influence of alien..."

"Music," Teal'c filled in.

Jack scowled. Somehow, something like 'alien technology' would have sounded more dignified. "Yeah," he said.

"Yes, sir," she said. "Uh, what were you saying, then?"

He opened his mouth to answer--to ask what she'd been about to say about him before she'd halfway passed out on the planet--then closed it, because he had a feeling she wouldn't be able to say it comfortably to a superior officer, and because he had a feeling he didn't really want to know. If he could insult her IQ, she could insult his right back, and he tried to avoid that sort of thing around geniuses. "Never mind."

Teal'c was looking far too smug about being the only one who hadn't made a fool of himself in some way or another. Jack made a face at him and received an eyebrow in return.

"All right, people," General Hammond said as he entered the infirmary. "I trust everything went as expected?"

"Yes, sir," Jack answered. "They were getting sick because they weren't listening to the right music, and we were getting sick because we _were_ listening to it."

Carter gave him a sideway glace but nodded. "The inhabitants seemed to be in some kind of symbiotic relationship with the plants on that planet. I did record a short segment of their...uh--"

"Singing," Teal'c supplied. Jack glared at him again. He was practically _smiling_.

"Right. I'm sure that, upon analysis, we'll be able to find two different frequencies, one emitted by the plants and the other by the inhabitants. That frequency is necessary for their survival."

"And the samples you brought back?" the general asked. "Or observations of the plants?"

"For now, we're keeping some samples frozen in storage," she said. "Preliminary studies haven't identified anything we can use in terms of medicinal compounds. In any case, I'm reluctant to try collecting more samples, since they're so crucial to the inhabitants' lives."

"Also, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to establish any really meaningful sort of communication with them," Rothman added. "Their lifestyles are so different from ours that we'd probably have a hard time gaining enough knowledge or material benefit to warrant another expedition, unless it's for some really long-term research on those people or the plants."

"Which would lead to a world of headache for any researchers," Jack said. "Literally."

"I am in agreement," Teal'c said as Carter nodded.

"Fine," the general said. "Can I assume the UAV..."

"It could be anywhere on that planet by now, sir," Jack said. "They might have carried it somewhere, because we couldn't find any more tracks from dragging."

With a sigh, Hammond nodded. "Then all of you grab a shower and get some sleep. Dr. Fraiser will be thinking about revising precautions to take off-world, and I'll meet with her tomorrow to discuss that."

XXXXX

**_5 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 1000 hrs_ **

The infirmary was mostly empty when Daniel entered. "Janet?" he called, walking toward her office. "Are you here?"

"Yes, right here," Janet said, stepping out. "I'm sorry; I forgot the time."

"If there's a better time... Jack just said I should--"

"First aid lessons, that's right," she said with a nod. "Why don't you step into my office. After today, I'll give you a schedule for when someone--probably one of the nurses or medics--is conducting a session on the techniques. You'll have to be certified in certain areas if you want to join a team fulltime someday." She paused as she pulled a chair out for him and gestured for him to sit. "I'm assuming that's still what you're aiming for?"

"Yes," Daniel said, taking a seat. "It's a little confusing now, because Robert Rothman and I were supposed to be attached to SG-1 and -2 for training, and now SG-2 is specialized for military support and Robert's getting assigned to SG-11, and I've been attached to a lot of other teams, so...I'm not sure how it's going to work. But hopefully, yes, eventually."

"Well, if Colonel O'Neill told you to get first aid training, I'm sure he means for that to happen, too, at some point. So, Daniel," she said, as she bent slightly to pull out a standard first aid kit, "I haven't talked to you in a while. How have you been? You just took your high school equivalence test, didn't you?" He nodded, and she added, "Well, how did you do?"

Daniel grimaced. "Okay, I think, but I want to wait a couple of weeks and see my social studies score before I say for certain."

"Really," she said, sounding amused. "Social studies? That's your department."

"It's the only part that's really specific to this country or this planet," he explained. "I think I did well enough to pass, but that's about all I can say."

"Well, I'm sure you did fine," she assured him with a smile as she sat down behind her desk. "Actually, I had an ulterior motive for wanting to do this part with you myself. Before we start, I wanted to run something by you. I was just in a meeting with the general about the medical risks of off-world travel. We've had people here infected by alien diseases, and it's possible that we could be introducing diseases to other planets, too."

_Like Europeans bringing diseases to the 'New World,'_ Daniel thought, and then decided it would be a few weeks before he even touched a US history book again. "But is there a way to prevent that? Do all missions MOPP 4 and decontaminate before every trip through the Stargate?"

"There are planets we don't explore because their conditions are so dangerous to us," she said. "It's easily possible that the reverse is true. Anything we bring through the 'gate--synthetic or natural materials, foods, even our bodies--could be dangerous, or even toxic, if the locals' physiology is different enough, or if we affect the wildlife. It all depends on how alien they are."

"Uh...wow," he said, blinking. "But, I mean, that's...even...you mean, _anything_?"

Janet smiled. "It's not quite that bad. Most of the planets we visit were recorded by the Goa'uld, which means a lot of them are or were populated by humans."

"But not all," Daniel said, thinking of singing aliens who became sick when they didn't have plants that sang back to them.

"No, not all. For those, however, we have no way of knowing how to predict what will happen when faced with someone about whom we understand so little. We're assuming that humans who have similar physiologies to ours are likely susceptible so similar families of pathogens."

"Is that a reasonable assumption?" he asked doubtfully.

"It's not perfect, but I think it's the best we can do with our current knowledge," Janet said. "But we _would_ like to increase our understanding of how microbes evolve or are affected by off-world conditions. One way to start is to collect information and biological samples for analysis from people on different planets, and the general suggested that I could talk with you about that."

  1. "You want me to ask the people of Abydos," Daniel summarized.



"Yes," she said. "There are some other planets we can ask, too, but Abydos would be a place to start, since we have you, and we know its history very well, in relation to Earth's history."

"All they would have to do is, what...let someone draw blood?" he asked. "Take samples? Would this be a condition of further aid?"

"It's not a condition," she said immediately. "It would be purely for any person who agrees to participate, and we'd only need a small amount of blood or other samples from each person--like what we do for check-ups here. We'd complete a quick medical examination on those participants to be able to match any anomalies in the samples to health issues."

"So you're only testing for the presence of pathogens," he clarified.

"Primarily, yes, pathogens or antibodies to them. I _would_ like to run some other tests, like genetic screens, but only for the purpose of determining whether there are significant deviations from what we usually see. If you're worried about issues of legality or privacy, we can set it up so that all experimenters are blinded concerning which samples go with which person--you can be in control of all records if you'd like, or I can keep track of it myself."

"Mm-hm," Daniel said absently, still thinking. "What if you found anomalies? Ones that might indicate sickness, I mean. Would you be able to treat them?"

"I can't make promises about something I don't know," Janet said. "But we would do what we could. That being said, it's possible that what we learn from studies of Abydonian diseases could be used for medical aid better tailored to adapted to the Abydons' needs."

"Really?" Daniel said, straightening. "You could do that?"

"I can't make any promises," she repeated. "But it's a possibility. The team overseeing the mining there have noticed that some Abydons seem to exhibit symptoms of diseases that we've essentially eradicated here. Polio, for one, you know what that is?"

"I've heard of it, yes." He didn't know which disease that was, exactly, outside of mentions from history books, but he'd noticed soon after arriving on Earth that the people here seemed to sicken less, or, at least, survived sicknesses better. It was hard not to dwell on the fact that Tau'ri who were very old by Abydonian standards didn't consider their own deaths to be near--didn't even think about it, usually, until many years later. What if they could change that for the Abydons some day? "I understand what you're saying."

Janet nodded. "Do you think it would be possible? There's a lot about medicine to be both learned and shared between our planets. I've always wondered about naquadah, for example--remember how Cassie was immune to the Hanka plague? Granted, it might have been engineered specifically that way, but..."

Daniel nodded, leaning forward. "Yes, yes, there are older people in Nagada who thought there was something...I don't know, mystical about the naquadah mines, that it protected from disease. I assumed it was false propaganda to encourage them to work." He hesitated, then added, "The...life expectancy in Nagada is not as...as high as it is on Earth. Here, anyway. But it's higher than what archaeologists estimate for Ancient Egyptians, who were at a similar technological level and lived in somewhat similar conditions. Maybe there's some truth to the legends."

A gleam of interest appeared in Janet's eyes. "Well, this would expand our sample size quite a bit, if we want to test any hypothesis about naquadah," she said. "It wouldn't hurt to ask, then?"

"No, asking won't be a problem, not in Nagada," Daniel confirmed. "Uh, you should be careful on other planets, though; some cultures have taboos on taking another's blood." Blood drawing and storage and analysis wasn't done on Abydos, but they did know the importance of blood to health, and he didn't think it would be specifically prohibited.

"We'll definitely keep that in mind," she said. "If nothing else, if we sample enough planets, we could discover new organisms and medical practices, or be able to better predict the effect of environment and lifestyle on human health and genetics."

"Of course," he said. "When will this happen?"

"We just need final approval from the general's superiors. I don't foresee any opposition, considering the scientific benefits alone, not to mention the possible benefits for others or improvements on safety procedures in 'gate travel. After that, you and I would go with a team to Abydos. Does that sound okay?"

"Yes," he said. "Definitely. Thank you, Janet."

"It's not purely altruistic," she reminded him, "so thank _you_." She pulled the first aid kit between them. "Now. Back to our business--emergency first aid. I'm just going to make sure you know what all of this is and know basic concepts and anatomical terms before you try to learn techniques. All right?"

They'd just finished going through the kit, and Janet was giving him a list of places to find references if he needed it, when an unscheduled off-world activation made them both freeze and look up, waiting to see if the speakers would tell them more.

When the wormhole was announced disengaged with no further disturbance, Janet relaxed, laughing a little. "It's almost Pavlovian by now, isn't it?"

Daniel smiled politely in response and waited until she wasn't looking to pull a pen from his pocket and write a note on his hand to look up what ' _Pavlovian_ ' meant when he had a chance.

"From here," she said, "I'm going to ask you to go to one of Corporal Thomson's sessions for the essential techniques. It's recommended to learn more but not required unless you're assigned to a team as the designated field medic. That's unlikely--a lot of the personnel here are certified combat medics--but it never hurts to have an extra skill set. All right?"

"All right," he agreed, mentally reviewing SG teams and identifying the medic on each before remembering that, if he made a team, it would be for linguistic reasons. Not that he wouldn't learn more. _Just in case_ , Jack and Ferretti were always telling him, and he knew as well as anyone not to expect missions to go according to plan.

From outside, Jack's voice called, "Doc! Dr. Fraiser?"

Janet looked at Daniel, then said, "I guess we're done for now, then."

"Sure," he said, standing quickly as she repacked the kit. "Thank you. Um...let me know about Abydos?"

"Of course."

When he stepped out of Janet's office, Jack, General Hammond, and Sam were all there, along with a very pale, very young boy, guided by Jack's hand on his shoulder.

"Ah, Daniel..." Jack started, gesturing with a sharp eye-roll toward the door.

"I was just leaving," Daniel assured him, with a curious glance at the little boy. The boy looked up at Jack, then back down when Jack smiled reassuringly. Daniel raised his eyebrows but nodded to them and left.

"Mother says to trust you, Colonel O'Neill," the little boy's voice said. Daniel looked back in surprise, but the door closed, cutting off further sound. No one had been holding a weapon, though, and Teal'c hadn't even been around, so he shrugged and headed for the library.

XXXXX

**_7 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 1300 hrs_ **

"Genetic engineering?" Robert repeated, not looking up from his work. "Why do you ask?"

Daniel shrugged. "You know that boy who came through the Stargate two days ago with SG-1? I've heard he was... _created_. By genetic engineering. How does that work?"

"Uh, you're asking the wrong person," Robert said. "But I'm pretty sure building a whole person is beyond what we're capable of here on Earth, unless it's just... What exactly do you mean, 'created?'"

"I don't know; it's just rumor, and even SG-1 won't tell me what's going on. But I hear whoever did it wasn't very good at it either. His organs were made wrong or something."

"Hm. Did they try the sarcophagus?" Robert said.

"Yesterday," Daniel confirmed. "He got a little better, but his organs healed wrong--the same wrong as they were to start with."

"Makes sense. No reason to think the sarcophagus could return him to a healthy state that he's never been in before."

"But then they called the Tok'ra, and the Stargate's been opening and closing since last night."

Daniel watched for a reaction to see if he was drawing the right conclusion from that, but Robert only made a face at his computer screen. "You think they want to heal him by giving him a symbiote." His expression turned thoughtful, and he said, "Well, it _would_ be a way of continual healing, without being driven crazy."

"That's what I thought at first," Daniel said, "but then, why would they put the base on alert?"

"Really?" Robert said, finally looking up. "We're on alert?"

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Uh, yes? Low level, but they're not letting noncombatants off at the lower two floors and...and the security teams, and...you didn't know?"

"Huh. I didn't notice."

"Well, what do you think is going on? You think _he's_ a Goa'uld, the boy?"

"Uh...no," Robert said. "Captain Carter or Teal'c would know right away if they were standing next to a Goa'uld."

_True_ , Daniel thought, then suggested, "Maybe they _do_ know, and he's Tok'ra, but the symbiote was damaged, so they needed the sarcophagus, and then they contacted the Tok'ra once he was healed."

"What about that organ malfunction thing, then?" Robert pointed out.

"Well, it was just rumor when I heard it. It could be wrong."

"Still, you said he was young, right? Old enough that a Tok'ra would want him as a host?"

Daniel shuddered, imagining being implanted at what looked like six years of age. "Maybe not. You're right. Still, it must be something big--I caught a glimpse of General Carter, so the Tok'ra are really interested. And all of SG-1 stayed here to work through the night. I don't mean loitering in Sam's lab or...or training or something. They were in briefings and...well, I don't know, really, but it seemed important."

"Did they go off-world?" Robert said, drumming his fingers against his desk.

"Maybe, I have no idea. I told you, they're not letting us go down to the lower levels."

The lights went out.

Daniel froze, and Robert's drumming stopped. "What..." he started.

"Was that you?" Robert's voice said.

"No," Daniel said, standing and starting to fumble at his desk, just as the lights flickered and returned.

Robert was halfway to his feet, and as Daniel looked around, he said, "What was that? The lights aren't supposed to do that, are they?"

"I don't know," Daniel said. "Maybe they did it on purpose."

"We're on alert, you said?" Robert said nervously.

Daniel walked to the door and poked his head out to look around. The SFs were still there, one of them lowering his hand from his radio, but they looked more tense than usual. Was that only his imagination? "Excuse me," Daniel said, looking down the hall and almost expecting something terrible to come barreling toward him. "Do you know if...?"

"We've been advised that all levels below the twenty-first have been sealed off, Mr. Jackson," the airman told him.

"That's where the infirmary is," Robert said, stepping out behind Daniel.

"Yes, sir."

"So...it's sealed off, and we're just sitting here?" Robert said. "What's going on? Why wasn't there a...a...an announcement or something?""

"That's all we've been told, Dr. Rothman," the airman said patiently.

"But everything above sublevel twenty-one is still fine?" Daniel clarified.

"That's correct."

Robert looked at Daniel. "Okay," he said, shrugging. "I wanted to look at something in the lab, anyway. Want to come?"

Daniel considered, then locked the office behind them. "Okay."

XXXXX

**_6 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 1500 hrs_ **

They were in the lab, Robert examining some tooth marks on a fossil and Daniel describing a language for a report, when they heard, "So."

Both looked up briefly. "Oh, hi, Jack."

Jack's hands were securely in his pockets as he wandered around, peering at the artifacts and devices lining the benches. "Well, you'll be happy to know the Reetou are gone," he said.

Daniel looked up again. "The what?"

"Reetou," Jack repeated. "The invisible aliens who tried to destroy all of Earth just now."

"Is _that_ what was happening?" Robert asked distractedly.

Jack's face went through several expressions before settling on disbelief. "That's it? There was a lockdown. There was...shooting, and Tok'ra rip-offs of Goa'uld toys. We were thinking of setting the self-destruct."

Now Robert looked up, too, alarmed. "You set the self-destruct?"

"No," Jack said slowly. "Because we killed the Reetou."

"Oh. Well, good."

Daniel shrugged apologetically at Jack as Robert bent over the fossil again. "We'll cower in the office next time," he said seriously. Jack rolled his eyes. "So, shooting. Was anyone, uh...?"

"Brecker and Plunkett were hurt, but they were sent down to the sarcophagus--they'll be okay," Jack said. "We lost Rothman, though. His advance directive says no sarcophagus."

Daniel looked at Robert, who seemed very much there, then back. "You...you did."

"He means the Marine," Robert said, looking up, an odd expression on his face. "Richard Rothman. They mix up our paychecks all the time. _Mixed_ up."

"Yeah," Jack said, dropping his eyes for a moment. "No other fatalities. Earth is safe."

"That's..." _...good_? For Earth, obviously, but not for the man who'd given his life for it. Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose and tried, "Uh, so...what is 'Reetou?' Is that what the...wait, when you say you killed the Reetou, you don't mean... There was a little boy--was _he_ a Reetou?"

"Nope," Jack said, taking his hands out of his pockets to pick up one of Daniel's notebooks, holding it up and squinting at it as if he couldn't understand the perfectly English writing on it. "He was sent here to warn us about the Reetou. One of them was his mom. But she was one of the good guys."

Daniel blinked. "Okay," he said. "Um. I think I'll have to read the report. He's fine, then, the boy?" Jack squinted harder at the notebook, tilting it at a more extreme angle, and Daniel knew something was wrong. "He's not, is he?" Daniel guessed, pushing away from the lab bench.

Jack shrugged, dropping the notes back on the bench. "He'll be okay. He's going to stay with Carter's dad and get...help."

The Tok'ra. "I see," Daniel said, not seeing at all, except that Jack would never give up a child to a race of Goa'ulds, no matter how much they hated the System Lords, unless there was no other choice. Maybe he _was_ going to be implanted, then, and be healed with the help of a symbiote, which was nice, but a little horrifying, as well. "So... But then, he'll live?"

"Yeah. He'll live," Jack agreed.

Robert took a glance between the two of them, then buried himself firmly in looking at the fossilized bone again.

Clearing his throat, Daniel said, "Uh...so, Sam's dad has left? I wish I'd gotten a chance to meet him while he was here."

"Reetou," Jack reminded him. "Shooting."

"Right."

"And he had to take Charlie back."

Daniel bit his lip and looked carefully at him. "Uh, Jack...?"

"The kid you saw in the infirmary," Jack explained, casual as ever but not looking at him. "He picked a name for himself. Called himself Charlie." Daniel felt himself wince.

"Oh," he said. "I'm, uh..."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, Jack."

"Don't be. He'll live," Jack said shortly, and Daniel wondered whether the bitterness there was simply because the boy had picked Charlie's name, or because Charlie was living while Jack's Charlie hadn't, or because Charlie was going to leave and be implanted with a symbiote.

"Do you..." Daniel coughed nervously. "I mean, do you, uh...want to talk about--"

"I was going to get a cup of coffee in the commissary," Jack interrupted, picking up an artifact and then putting it back down without really looking at it.

Daniel nodded slowly. "I missed lunch," he offered. "You, uh... Do you...?"

"Wanna...?" Jack jabbed a thumb in the direction of the door.

"Sure." Daniel glanced back, but Robert was writing something. A closer look told him that Richard Rothman's name was being added to the list they kept together in unspoken remembrance. They had never mentioned it to each other, though both of their handwritings were represented, and Robert showed no inclination to want to mention it, so Daniel pulled off his glasses and followed Jack out.

"Not that way," Jack said, steering him toward another elevator shaft. "Carter blew that one up."

"Of course she did," Daniel said, deciding he _really_ had to find out what had happened.

"You missed lunch?" Jack said conversationally.

"Yes," Daniel said. "I don't know if you heard, but there was a lockdown. We were cowering."

Jack snorted and pushed him onward toward the elevator, and if his hand on Daniel's back was a little gentler than usual, neither of them commented on it.


	24. Diplomacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: For the purposes of this chapter, to reduce italic use, please assume that "speaking" is in Abydonian and "speaking" is in English.

**_10 April 1999; Nagada, Abydos; 1700 hrs_ **

It was hot. Well, of course it was--it was late afternoon in the heart of the Abydonian desert, after all--but it felt odd for Daniel to notice the heat specifically.

They were under a tent--Daniel, SG-8, Janet, and her medical staff--and they weren't even being that physically active, and it still felt uncomfortable. It had been nice, at first, the dry heat like a ' _welcome home_ ,' but after a few hours, his nose was twitching with the mingled scent of Abydonian oils, Tau'ri sunscreen, and evaporating sweat, and it was making him lethargic already. He had caught himself thinking about nightfall and how it would be cooler then.

Tobay, Kasuf, and Sainu--Nagada's best physician--had been there almost the entire time when they weren't explaining the medical proceedings to others and asking for their help, and they were unruffled under their robes, unlike the SG personnel. Daniel could see Tobay notice as he wiped his brow on his sleeve and tried not to show his discomfort in the full uniform they all continued to wear. It would have been nice just to strip off a few layers, but probably not proper procedure.

A part of him missed the days when the SGC had felt perpetually cold, because that was how it should feel to someone used to sweltering days broken by short cold spells at night. It was a stupid thought, of course, but it was there.

" _Daniel_ ," Janet called from the next tent over, " _do you see that box--no, the other one--_ "

" _This one?_ " he called back.

" _That's it. Bring it over, if you don't mind._ "

He trotted over to give her the insulated container and took the one she'd just filled, loading it onto what looked to him like nothing more than a miniature FRED that they were using to send samples back to the SGC for storage.

Daniel had been afraid Kasuf would be hesitant about this, not because of fear of the procedures but rather because Abydos had a less than positive history with technologically advanced societies. It was nice to tell tales of a heroic nation that came and saved them and left within a week, but if Daniel hadn't known that their intentions were good, he would have been suspicious himself once a team of people came and asked for their blood.

"What if we refuse?" Kasuf had said, but his tone said that he wasn't refusing so much as he was trying to find out what the Tau'ri would do if they _did_ refuse.

"Then no one will force you," Daniel had promised after Janet had demonstrated on him that the only unfamiliar procedure was blood-drawing, and that it was quick and almost painless. "There will be no consequences. But I advise you to let them do this, Elder, at least those who are willing. If any medical learning is gained, it will be shared with our physicians for our own people to use." He ducked his head in respect to Sainu, standing next to Kasuf.

Tobay had stepped forward first, along with Sainu, and they were continuing to help by gathering more who were willing to volunteer for the medical study.

Sainu had been their physician for many years, and while he could not write, some of his younger students could and did, recording instructions and learning gleaned from experience and from Tau'ri exchanges. He was an old man, even older than Kasuf. Old for an Abydon, anyway.

Robert was the one who had told him distractedly over some translation that the people of comparable but less advanced societies might have a lower life expectancy than the average United States Tau'ri. It was just another fact in a long list of things Daniel had learned. But it was a fact he could help change if they could establish some kind of effective exchange.

"Nabeh," Daniel greeted, offering an automatic smile to the next patient and gesturing to sit inside the shade of the tent. "This is...Nikha?"

"Yes," Nabeh answered for both himself and the young girl at his side, looking around curiously. Nabeh was another from Skaara's age set--friendly, but not someone Daniel knew well--while Nikha had been born only a few years before Apophis's attack.

" _He's number twenty-one, and she's twenty-two_ ," he said to the nurse. The man nodded and wrote the numbers on the respective tubes as Daniel recorded Nabeh and Nikha's names and their numbers in his own notebook, then copied the names onto the top of two empty charts. Blinded studies, as it turned out, were more complicated than he'd realized when he tried to keep track of everyone.

"What do we need to do, Dan'yel?" Nabeh asked.

"First, some information. You are twenty-four years of age, yes?" he started, the words feeling like a scripted recital now after enough repetitions.

"Yes. Nikha--"

"Eight," Nikha piped up for herself.

Daniel nodded and wrote the numbers onto the charts, to be converted to Earth years later.

"--with Dan'yel, now--"

At the sound of his name, Daniel looked up, but no one seemed to be talking to him, and he couldn't tell who had been speaking. Janet was intent on her work in the next tent, with the help of one more nurse, so it wasn't them. He shook his head; anyone who needed to talk to him would say something again.

"Uh..." he said, refocusing his attention. "I need to make a list of illnesses you have had in the past. The illnesses you remember," he added when Nabeh's eyebrows rose.

Recording medical history was difficult simply because the words were different. By comparing notes with Sainu, Janet thought she had an idea of which words corresponded to certain Earth diseases, but without more time and evidence, it was difficult to tell. Besides, the point of this trip was that similar symptoms might stem from different pathogens, so the best Daniel could do for now was to make a list of symptoms describing any current or past diseases for each person. Some of the same symptoms arose over and over for diseases that he knew were very different--fever, weakness, pain--and he marveled that doctors could _ever_ tell one sickness from another.

Once he'd recorded what he could of their medical history, he handed them each a chart and told them, "Your blood will be drawn here. Then give these to Janet, the physician in the other tent, when she is available. She will say the word 'finished' when she is done with her measurements. Call for me if you need help."

" _Daniel, a minute, please_?" Janet called, gesturing.

Daniel nodded to Nabeh, leaving them with the nurse, then crossed to the other tent. " _What's wrong_?"

" _I think I'm missing something_ ," she said, smiling at the young woman--Bekaa--who sat nervously in front of her. " _She's worried, but I'm not sure what about._ "

It took another round of back-and-forth between them before Daniel could tell Janet that Bekaa thought she might be with child and was worried about whether anything would harm the baby. This led to a few assurances, more questions, scribbled notes to ask around about what normal practices were for expectant women, and some advice for Bekaa.

" _Do you still need me here?_ " Daniel said to Janet when it looked like the next person was ready in the other tent. " _I've told her that_ \--"

"--gone back to his own people--"

Daniel looked up in time to see a cluster of three people look quickly away.

" _Something wrong_?" Janet said.

" _Um, no, uh...sorry, nothing_ ," he said.

" _That's it, Daniel, thank you_."

Daniel moved quickly back to the other tent. It was like a cycle: mark numbers, give instructions, take a medical history, and stand by to help Janet while blood was being drawn. Then return for the next couple of people and take more numbers and give more instructions while Janet was examining her patients behind a closed tent flap.

Over and over and--

"--would never know he was an Abydon."

Daniel froze as he crouched to pick up more blank charts, listening more closely, but didn't look up.

"His blood is not Abydonian."

"Hush! He is from Nagada, like you or I."

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and look up into Tobay's eyes. "Do not listen to such chatter," his brother said.

Daniel picked up the charts and stood. "Has everyone been saying--"

"No," Tobay said. "Almost none of us."

Swallowing, he murmured, "But some. Brother..."

"You have work to do," Tobay said firmly. "Seinah is here; she says she will help you when your physicians have finished with her. Come now, do your job."

"Yes. Good. Thank you," Daniel said, too confused to argue.

Seinah, Skaara's betrothed, gave him a smile that was somewhat reserved, but he was pretty sure that was simply the way she always was. Her words to him were easy, though, some in Abydonian and others in English, and he relaxed a little.

But he also saw the hesitation in Tobay that wasn't wariness but also wasn't the teasing they had once shared easily. It was partly because Daniel was no longer _sinu'ket_ , the child brother, and there was no Skaara to answer to if someone bullied him. But it was more than that--it was in the way Tobay said 'your world' of Earth, and 'your physicians' of Janet and the nurses. Daniel knew it was because he was working with the SGC at the moment, but he couldn't help wondering whether everyone thought he was Tau'ri more than Abydon, even if few said it aloud.

" _I've been recording names in our hieroglyphs and_ \--" he started to Seinah.

" _And in the phonetic script_ ," Seinah finished, and it wasn't until Daniel heard her accent that he realized how easily he'd slipped into English. " _I can read it also, Dan'yel. I will help here. Go to the other tent--I will ask if we have need of aid._ "

" _Right. Thank you_ ," he said, then added, in their native language, "Dewa'ta."

" _You have nothing to prove to me_ ," Seinah said, her chin lifting. " _We are Abydon. It does not matter what tongue we speak. Go._ "

Daniel obediently went to assist Janet.

XXXXX

**_10 April 1999; Nagada, Abydos; 2200 hrs_ **

" _Yes, General_ ," Daniel said, wishing that the MALP had a screen as well as a camera, because it felt odd to know the general could see him while the reverse wasn't true; he was rarely the one reporting from off-world. " _I have the last group of samples that Dr. Fraiser would like to send back, along with local medicine and soil samples._ " He pointed to the boxes he'd loaded.

_"Send it through,"_ General Hammond's voice said from the MALP. _"Any problems to report?"_

Daniel carefully maneuvered the remote-controlled vehicle through the wormhole. " _No, sir. It's been slow, because the people would suffer from sun sickness if we asked them all to line up and wait, so we've had to split up between working with patients and fetching others from their homes to our tents_."

_"I understand. Do you have an estimate for how much time you'll need?"_

" _Dr. Fraiser is still in the village. She estimates perhaps five hours, depending on how many people are willing to work with us. However, it will be dark in less than an hour, and we've been invited to stay and spend the night before returning_."

_"That's fine,"_ the general confirmed. _"We can extend your stay. However, given our history on Abydos, I'll want a report in the morning."_

" _Sunrise here won't be until...about 1200 your time,"_ Daniel said, checking his watch. _"We can contact you earlier than that, but it would be polite not to resume activities in the middle of the night. So it might be some time before we actually get back to Earth_."

_"All right. Do you need any more supplies?"_

" _No, sir. They have all the equipment they need. Did you receive the samples I just sent?_ "

_"We have them right here, Mr. Jackson. Tell Dr. Fraiser I'm expecting a report by 1200 tomorrow."_

Daniel shut off the MALP transmitter and watched the wormhole close before standing to face SG-8's Captain Bole and Tobay. He wondered if they'd both insisted on following him here for his safety or because...well. Worlds were at war, people had been betrayed, friends had been lost...it was just procedure. He understood that.

" _We should return_ ," he said, waiting for both to nod before following them through the darkening desert to Nagada, where Janet and the rest of SG-8 awaited them.

The sun was beginning to duck below the horizon now, and Daniel knew that the moons would crawl up into the sky next, n'Djehuti Iraet and Khonsu and Onuris. At least one would probably be full, or near enough, and he realized with a sudden ache that he had no idea where in the moons' cycles they were.

When he noticed Tobay watching him again, he said, "We will stop working when the sun goes down. We brought artificial lights, but our physicians would rather be able to see well so they can be careful."

"You are accustomed to their ways now?" Tobay asked.

Daniel had to laugh a little. "In medicine? No. But I am not alone. Few people on Earth know as much as Janet. Everyone fears her a little." When Tobay's eyebrows rose, he added, "It is not so different with Nagada's physicians, is it?"

"That is true," Tobay agreed with a laugh, because medical examinations seemed to be equally disliked everywhere. "Dan'yel--"

"Yes?"

"You truly believe that these...that what the Tau'ri from Earth are doing here will help our people?"

"I do," Daniel said, unable to help stiffening at the implication he heard. "I would never allow anyone to take advantage of Abydos."

"I did not say you would," Tobay said, a little impatiently. "But I have a duty to my people."

"I also have a duty to _our_ people," Daniel replied tightly.

"Yes. But you have a duty to the people of Earth now, also."

Folding his arms, Daniel shook his head. "Our interests do not conflict."

There was a hesitation, and Daniel saw Tobay fingering the his Guard's band. Daniel touched his own wrist, where he wore a strip of leather for brotherhood to an Abydon and another for friendship to a Jaffa, and felt the metal identification tags lying against his chest that marked him as Tau'ri.

"I know you," Tobay said finally. "I trust you. We all trust your word. You heard only a handful of thoughtless people, among thousands."

"It is truly not everyone?" he asked. He was certain Kasuf had no doubts in his word, and no one so far had been anything but friendly or at least polite to him and the Tau'ri. Still--

Tobay rolled his eyes. "Some do not understand your reasons, but they do not speak against your actions. Those of us who agree with you do not make so much noise, so you do not hear us."

Daniel took a deep breath, grateful to hear Tobay include himself among those who agreed. "I have not left our people, brother, not forever. I would never betray them."

"I never believed you would." Tobay grinned at him. "There are also others who say Dan'yel, son of Mel of Earth and his wife Claire, can do no wrong. Perhaps they would not believe that if I told them stories of when you were a child, little brother."

Daniel forced himself to smile back and backhand Tobay's arm playfully in acknowledgement of the joke. He was relieved to know he had not completely fallen out of his place here but rattled by the belated realization that he could not reasonably expect all of two or three thousand people to be completely accepting of every change that took place. It was good, though. It was good that there was someone on Earth to think of Abydos's interests, but good that there were people on Abydos, as well, who would protect her and her people.

" _Problems_?" Captain Bole said once they'd lapsed back into silence that felt strangely awkward.

" _No, sir_ ," Daniel said. " _It's fine_."

Once they reached the tent where Janet was thanking the last patient of the day, Daniel broke away to say, " _Janet, General Hammond says we can stay the night, but we have a scheduled report by 1200 tomorrow_."

She glanced once at her watch, then nodded. " _Good. That gives us plenty of time. We should be done by the end of the day tomorrow. Daniel, if you would, help SG-8 start putting our equipment away_."

XXXXX

**_10 April 1999; Nagada, Abydos; 0600 hrs_ **

Daniel almost used a fire-burning torch to light his way into the mines, out of habit, but then he remembered that naquadah was explosive. He knew that it took a lot of energy to make unrefined naquadah explode, and he used to walk around here with lamps or torches without setting anything off, but now that he'd witnessed naquadah's power, he wasn't about to test it. He had a Maglite, after all, which was brighter and made less smoke.

Not everyone had understood why he used to wander around the naquadah mines. Some of the other children did it, too, sneaking in at night without a lamp to show they weren't scared of the dark, scary cave. That was all it was to them, Daniel's generation and the younger ones: a dark hole in their ground and in their history where the older people never went.

Every child eventually learned how their ancestors had worked there, and it stopped most of them from playing. Daniel had liked to bring a book, sit just inside, and read, until his father found him and warned that he was going to ruin his eyes, reading in the dark. He'd brought a lamp with him after that. His mother had told him he'd get mineral soaked into his skin if he sat there all the time. Daniel didn't know if it worked like that, but at the time, he'd shrugged and said he liked the idea of having his people's history in his bones, which had made her laugh.

SG-6 had set up a lighting system, though the lack of central electricity systems meant that it wasn't particularly powerful or efficient. Daniel left their generators alone and switched on his flashlight as he ducked inside.

A shiver ran through him every time he took the first few steps into the mine. He'd always thought it was a matter of subconscious respect for the history it represented, something that had to do with how many years Abydonian slaves had spent in these spaces and how many Abydons must have died working for the Goa'uld. Now, realistically, he knew it was probably a physical reaction to the presence of naquadah.

Sam or Teal'c would know immediately if they were in a mine like this. Even Daniel, whose blood level of naquadah was slowly decreasing as he continued living on a naquadah-poor planet--likely because of the lack of the Goa'uld protein markers that bound it in the blood, Janet said--could feel the naquadah in the air around him, a tiny awareness that he used to think of as veneration for the past and now only reminded him of the Goa'uld.

There was a _lot_ of naquadah in here, just in this one Nagadan mine, and there were newly-unearthed depths that had been undisturbed even after millennia of mining.

A shuffle of footsteps made him whirl around, and he felt his heart begin to race before he could realize that it was Kasuf.

Gods, he had become paranoid, and in his hometown, no less.

"What are you doing here, Dan'yel?" Kasuf asked, blocking the beam of his flashlight with a hand.

"I could not sleep, Elder," he said, quickly lowering the light out of the older man's eyes. "I am no longer used to nights this long. I wished to see what this mine looked like now; it has been years since I last came here."

"The Tau'ri men say it is unsafe," Kasuf said. "You should come out before a rock falls on you."

Reflexively, Daniel looked up, only to turn back and see Kasuf's smile and a raised eyebrow. Shaking his head at himself, he followed the elder out of the mine.

"Did I disturb you?" Daniel asked as they walked together toward the walls of the village. The Eye of Djehuty was not visible, he noticed, looking into the sky, but the other two moons were bright, so he switched the flashlight off.

"There is so much happening," Kasuf said. "It is too much to fall asleep. It is like this all time on Earth, yes?"

"Sometimes, yes." Kasuf tilted narrowed his eyes, a strange expression coming over his face. "What is it?"

In answer, he pointed to Daniel's face, then indicated his own eyes. "Mel used to wear those."

Pulling off his glasses, Daniel realized he hadn't worn them the last time he'd come here. "I had forgotten about them. Janet gave them to me soon after I first went to Earth."

"You like it there?"

"I like it _here_ ," he said. "This is my home."

"That is no answer to my question," Kasuf pointed out, a gentle rebuke.

Daniel bit his lip, then admitted, "It can be wonderful, on Earth. There are good people. I am learning so much, Kasuf, it is unimaginable. Even my parents could never have imagined all that I have seen. But we are only just beginning."

"Yes," Kasuf said. "The people of Earth have not brought evil. They do not act as if they are our betters. I have spoken to them when they are not working. We have feasted together. They are learning our tongue; we are learning theirs."

"Many people of the SGC are trying to learn at least a little of our language," Daniel explained. "It makes communication easier on some worlds."

"They are different from the tyrants of our past," he declared. "They give us aid and ask for our mineral in return. It is a trade. They do not force their words on us like invaders, but they do not forbid us from speaking it like the false gods."

"They are very different," Daniel agreed.

"You are accomplishing great things, on Earth?"

He hesitated, then nodded firmly. "We are. Sometimes it is easy to forget that, but we are accomplishing many things, all the time." When Kasuf only nodded, he added, "Of the false gods, Ra is not the only one that the Tau'ri have defeated."

"There are many others, then?" Kasuf said. "We suspected, but we have seen few."

"Earth was attacked by Hathor. But we stopped her," he added. "Apophis, who attacked us, and Horus the Elder, who stole Sha'uri and her son from here...both have been heavily weakened." _Apophis is being tortured to death now_ , he didn't add. "We have not won yet, but I think we are becoming more ready. I believe we truly have a chance to win."

Kasuf nodded, ushered him inside the walls of the village proper, then said, "Do you know any more of Skaara and Sha'uri?"

Daniel winced. "Not yet." Kasuf did not answer, and he added, "I promise you we are doing what we can. But the Tau'ri are still learning. They have other goals, also. I look for signs of them in every journey the SGC makes. But there is little we can do without knowing more."

"I know, Dan'yel," he said tiredly. "I know this. If they promise to help you in your goals, you must also help them in theirs, yes?"

But that wasn't quite right, either. That made it sound like a cold business agreement and nothing more, and it was true that Daniel helped the SGC in hopes that the SGC could help Abydos, but he couldn't deny that their goals had become his own, too. And--"My brothers on Earth have promised to look for Skaara and Sha'uri as if they were their own kin. I am not the only one who looks for them."

This seemed to satisfy Kasuf, who said, "Good. If you believe there is hope, then I will, also."

A distant movement caught Daniel's eye, and he looked around. "I see a Guard watching us," he observed in bemusement, squinting to bring Dabeh's watchful form into focus.

Kasuf pointed off into the distance, then toward the building where the Jacksons used to live and where SGC personnel now stayed. "Others, also. One of the Tau'ri does the same."

Daniel scowled. "I do not understand why they cannot just trust each other."

"It is not for trust. The Guards always keep a watch through the night," the elder pointed out.

"Yes," he agreed absently, still looking around and taking note of the vigilant figures he hadn't seen before. "SG members always stand watch, also, but I do not remember seeing so many Guards on watch at one time before."

Kasuf nodded. "It was their decision, not mine. Things have changed. Nagada has been hurt too many times, and so Nagada has changed, also."

Daniel folded his arms against the chill of night. "Everyone seems so serious now. I was not here to see it happen."

"Abydos has been changing since the Rebellion," Kasuf countered. "You did not see it because you never knew what it was like before, when Ra was still our god."

"Life was very different then?" he asked, because he'd heard stories, of course, but hearing stories rather than experiencing it oneself always meant that there was a bias, and it was good to hear from as many sources as possible. Some people were unwilling to talk about what life was like before, and those who were willing were also often given to embellishment.

There was a silence as Kasuf thought. "I remember most," he said, "how ordered life was. We rose at the same time every morning, we went to the fields or to the mine at the same time, my wife ground the same flour every day. I served as _lo'taur_ to Ra and did as he commanded every day--"

" _Lo'taur_?" Daniel asked, already parsing the unfamiliar Goa'uld word into its roots-- _lo_ for readiness of some sort, _taur_ for human. Kasuf didn't speak often of the details of his role under Ra's rule--not to the children, at least--but Daniel knew he had held some status, whatever that meant for a slave.

"I was the most trusted of his human servants," Kasuf said with a smile that betrayed a hint of bitterness. "Perhaps that was fortunate. Our people may have believed that I knew more of Ra than they, and when I began to believe Claire and Mel, the others followed me. We would not have won any other way. But freedom means more than losing our chains. You have known freedom all your life, Dan'yel. Even on Earth, I wish that you remain free."

"I am," Daniel assured him. "They are not using me against my will."

Kasuf looked at him sideways, though, and said, "Are you in danger with them?"

Daniel frowned. "My friends would never hurt me."

"But you are in danger because you help them."

"No. Perhaps, yes," he amended, watching the elder carefully. "But they are all in danger. They protect me. It is my choice, that I should be able to help them sometimes in return, even if it is not as safe. Even now, they do not let me go into danger."

"It is your choice?"

"Yes."

"You have changed," Kasuf said abruptly.

"Of course," Daniel said defensively. "You cannot expect that--"

"We do not expect you to remain unchanging," Kasuf told him sternly. "But you also cannot expect it of us."

"I know that."

"But you did not understand until now. There was a time," Kasuf said, in the tone of someone telling a story or a lesson, "after the Rebellion. We celebrated many days. When the celebration was over, many had forgotten how to live our strict lives, but we had never known anything else. You were a baby then, in those days when we had to learn again how to live. Everything we knew was destroyed with Ra. We have been changing for twenty years now. In the two years past, perhaps we have changed more, but so have you."

Daniel grimaced. "I hoped that Abydos would stay the same," he admitted, "even if everything else changed."

"It is good--we are the same people. We have grown careful but not untrusting, and we have also gained much knowledge. We were strong before, and we have grown stronger now. Is it not the same for you?"

Perhaps that was true. 'Just in case' felt like a habit now, not just an irritating mantra. 'Careful' and 'cautious' could be good, he knew. "We have all changed," Daniel acknowledged.

Kasuf inclined his head. "Only do not change so much that you forget who you are."

"No," he agreed. "Thank you. I wish I could stay longer."

"Why do you not?" Kasuf asked, but it wasn't in accusation so much as in curiosity.

Because if he stayed here at home too long, he might forget his other duties on Earth. And if he stayed _away_ from home too long, he might forget that it was a duty to Abydos as well as to Earth and not just a chance to learn and explore. If he sank too far into either side, he might forget the other. "There is a lot of work to be done," Daniel said as an explanation. "But someday, when we have more time, perhaps more of us--more of the Tau'ri can come here with me to visit, to spend some time."

"You have not seen a celebration since you left," Kasuf reminded him. "If you doubt that we remember how to make fun, tell that to Tobay. He will show you he has not forgotten how."

Daniel snorted. "Do you remember the time, Elder, he and Skaara replaced my drink with _hanqoti_ water--"

Kasuf laughed. Daniel blushed. "Your parents and I, we were very angry," Kasuf said, still smiling, anger and embarrassment both blunted by the fog of reminiscence.

"Yes," Daniel agreed, smiling at the memory, too. While the equivalent of daily beer on Abydos was weaker than that on Earth, according to what his parents had said, Skaara's _hanqoti_ had been particularly dangerous, sweet on the tongue but fire in the throat.

"Now that you are no longer a helpless child," Kasuf said, more quietly, "I am certain you can repay both of them for the trick."

When Skaara was back, he meant. "I will," Daniel said, nodding decisively.

Kasuf looked up into the sky. "There is still time before the sun rises. Go, rest, Dan'yel."

"Thank you, Elder. The Tau'ri and I appreciate your help."

"When will you leave?" Kasuf asked, stopping in front of his own house, and Daniel realized how empty it must seem now, with his wife long passed and both his children taken away.

"Tomorrow," Daniel said. "We will stay for some hours after sunrise, but we have to leave tomorrow."

"Then good night," Kasuf said. "We miss your laughter, Dan'yel. You must return more often."

Daniel smiled gratefully, nodded, and sat on the ground just outside the SGC's lodging to watch the sun rise over his home.


	25. Unity, Part I

**_3 May 1999; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

Daniel and Carter were already geeking out happily when Jack walked into the ready room. He heard ' _no water?_ ' and ' _signs of organic life_ ' and ' _ugh, sandy planet_ ' and ' _yes! sandy planet_ ,' and he quickly decided he should put an end to it.

"Okay, people," he said to get both of their attention. "P3X-562. No signs of current life, but signs of possible past life. Carter wants to check it out, Daniel wants to check it out, so we'll check it out, and if we can't find anything interesting, we head back. Any questions? No? Good."

The MALP sensors had picked up a brief, weak energy spike of some kind. The UAV had gone out again--as if to prove that they could, in fact, use UAVs without losing them--but its sensors hadn't picked anything up again, and Carter thought it had been a fluke. What the UAV _had_ seen, though, was a few pits of crystals that everyone was interested in.

He caught Daniel's sleeve before he could follow Carter and Teal'c to the 'gate room. Daniel blinked up at him. "Jack?"

Daniel knew what he was doing with off-world gear by now, but Jack ran a quick eye over him anyway, just to make sure that his zat was strapped on securely and not caught on anything and that everything else was in place. "You stay within sight of me the entire time, understand?"

"Jack..."

"Teal'c will be guarding Carter. No one wanders off alone, not even if the only thing we see is shiny blue crystals. Anyone gives a command, and that includes Carter or Teal'c, you don't ask; you obey. Is that understood?"

"Jack," Daniel repeated, "I know--"

"I haven't forgotten Cimmeria last year," Jack reminded him, feeling a little bad because he knew Daniel hadn't forgotten, either, but off-world was dangerous no matter how safe it looked. "Anything like that happens this time, we won't be lenient."

"Yes, sir," Daniel finally said, more subdued, but there was a confident set to his jaw, and Jack decided not to push it before he was pushed all the way from confident to defiant.

"Good. Let's go, we're gonna be late."

When the Stargate started dialing, Carter smiled at Daniel. "So, what do _you_ think? What might a bunch of crystals have been used for?"

"You're sure it's not Goa'uld technology?"

"I do not believe so," Teal'c offered.

"Neither do I. They're all the same color, for one," Carter said. "That's a bit superficial, but usually, _delmak_ crystals are colored differently according to the purpose they serve."

"Because they're made of different minerals?" Daniel asked.

"Actually, they're usually all a kind of silica, with structural differences that encode their programming and rate of decay. The difference in color seems to be artificially caused by specific doping that has minimal effects other than the color, possibly as a way of standardization. A planet full of blue control crystals would be like...like a lot of batteries with nothing to plug them into. What about you? Historical references?"

" _Chevron five encoded,_ " Harriman announced.

"The problem," Daniel said, "is that crystals were used in many cultures, but their relevance to this planet would also depend on the environment and the resources available."

"Make a few guesses," Jack told him.

"Well, crystals have used for decorative purposes. Also, for, uh, healing, worship, divining...oh, hey, Sam!"

" _Chevron seven--locked. Wormhole established_."

"What?" Carter asked, starting up the ramp and maneuvering the FRED with her remote until it was through the wormhole.

Jack couldn't tell whether Daniel was walking up automatically to keep talking to her, or if he just didn't notice Jack and Teal'c herding him toward the wormhole. "What if alien crystal technology is the basis for people's belief in the supernatural properties of crystals? Or--oh! Oh! What about light sabers?"

As Jack stared at the back of his head and an airman in the 'gate room coughed, Teal'c said, "There is an energy core of crystals within light sabers."

"Don't start," Carter warned both of them, and Daniel grinned cheekily at her. "But that's an interesting thought--not the light sabers; the...the historical rituals," she said, waiting for him to catch up before walking through. "In fact, it would be great if we could--"

XXXXX

**_3 May 1999; P3X-562; 0810 hrs_ **

She was still talking when Jack stepped onto the planet.

"--or if some of the crystals found by archaeologists are actually active _delmak_ ," she was saying thoughtfully. "It would be an incredible find."

"Well, someone might have noticed by now if that were commonly the case," Daniel countered. "They do a lot of tests on those kinds of things...but it could easily have provided historical basis for the legends."

Jack shook his foot unhappily. He'd stepped wrong coming out of the wormhole, and now there was a small pile of sand in his left boot. Carter grimaced a little at the prospect of trudging through sand for the next few hours, but Daniel's eyes lit up.

"How far away were the crystals supposed to be?" Daniel asked, hovering a few steps in front of them, as if he wanted to run ahead but knew he wasn't supposed to.

"Not far," Jack said. "The UAV saw a pit full of them just over that dune." Speaking of UAV, he turned back, dialed Earth again, and sent the probe back through right away--they weren't losing another probe under his watch. When he finished and rejoined them, he added, "There're at least two groupings of crystals, one of them a little farther out. We'll start at the closer one. Teal'c, any sign of life?"

"None," Teal'c said succinctly, and they were off.

"Wow," Carter said when they arrived at the top of the first dune, from where they could see the pit of broken, blue crystals. She moved to take point, already pulling a handheld sensor out of her belt and fiddling with it. Teal'c stationed himself at the top of the dune, where he could see as far as they'd need to.

"Wow," Daniel agreed, shading his eyes with a hand. "I've never seen or read about anything like this. Jack, can I...?"

"Yeah, go ahead." By the time the first word was out of his mouth, Daniel was running lightly down to join Carter in _ooh_ -ing and _ahh_ -ing. "Teal'c, you mind keeping watch?"

Teal'c took a look down at the other two. "I do not, O'Neill." Jack clapped him on the shoulder and started down after them.

"--understand why so many of them are broken," Daniel was saying by the time Jack was close enough to hear them. He picked up a shard of transparent blue rock.

"I'm amazed that there's so much of this material," Carter said, using a fingernail to tap on the piece in Daniel's hand. "I wonder what it's made of."

"Is it real crystal, not glass?"

"I'd need to do some X-ray analysis, but do you see how regular the shape is? That's likely the result of a crystalline lattice at the molecular level. If someone tried to carve this so precisely, I'd expect some trace of the tools used."

"And if someone carved them," Daniel said, "why were they left here, and broken--and where are the tools or traces of people? Buried over time in sand? Well, no, then why aren't _these_ buried?"

"For that matter," Carter pointed out, "if they were grown and found somewhere, I'd expect them to be even more valuable, so why were they left here?"

Daniel shook his head. "Jack, you said the UAV saw another group of crystals farther out. Maybe there's another clue there--something else people left behind."

"I'm going to wrap up some of these samples to take back, sir," Carter added. "And I'd like to get some video of this place so we can look back on it later."

"All right," Jack said. "Carter, stick around here and finish whatever you need. Daniel and I'll head over that way. Radio us when you're done."

"Yes, sir," she said, then pulled open her pack to start rummaging through again.

Daniel replaced his shard of crystal on the ground and accepted Jack's hand to pull himself to his feet, then started toward the next field of stones with Jack. "So, what do you think it is?"

"Not a clue," Jack said.

"There must have been people at some point, right? Someone gathered them all there for a reason. There are cultures that thought crystals had very specific abilities and that many of them together could magnify the effects. Or it could have been for some kind of ritual."

Jack was starting to think they were grasping at straws now. It was just _rocks_ left lying around in the _sand_. "Seriously?"

"I'm just trying to think of whatever possibilities I can," Daniel said, grinning and gesturing expansively with his arms as he spoke. Jack shook his head but couldn't help smiling a little himself to see him so enthusiastic about something and not brooding about anything at the moment. A nice, relaxing research mission with no one trying to kill them--it was nice for all of them, for a change, and Daniel had literally leapt, at least an inch or so off the ground, at the offer to go with them.

They reached the crest of a small sand dune, and, still grinning, Daniel ran down the other side, then turned and waited for Jack to follow.

"What're you so happy about today?" Jack asked, amused.

"Well, I passed the GEDs, and Robert's happy with the scores--mostly--so he's not constantly trying to make me study something irrelevant to our work," Daniel explained. "And..."

"Mostly?" Jack echoed.

Daniel shrugged. "He's annoyed that I did better on math than social studies. It wasn't that bad," he defended when Jack smirked. "Only ten points' difference, and they were both easily passing. And I did a lot better on the language sections, of course."

"Of course," Jack said, patting Daniel condescendingly on the head and receiving a swat at his own head for his efforts.

"Anyway, now that Robert's off-world with SG-11 a lot, there are more projects I get to work on. And it's nice to go off-world with you all for once...even if people on base call me your jinx."

"What?" Jack said sharply, wondering why he hadn't heard that moniker. He'd nipped a few in the bud-- _SG-1's Orphan_ had been shot down immediately with threats of violence--but Daniel was bound to have heard some he'd missed. "They do? Who calls you that?"

"It's just a joke. I heard the linguists say it once," Daniel said. "Like: 'Jackson's with SG-1, you know _that_ one's not going to go as planned.' That kind of thing. And then _that_ starts a debate about the etymology of the word 'jinx.' Did you know there's a bird that can turn its head all the way around and hiss like a snake?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm not even going to ask how that relates."

"It's called the iynx."

"Like I said, not asking." Jack considered. "You know, it's true--we've practically never had a straight-forward mission with you on board."

Instead of taking offense, Daniel pointed out, "They've all been considered successful, though. Wildly successful, some might say. Maybe I'm your _good_ -luck charm, and you need to take me with you more."

"Is that a hint?"

Daniel flashed him a quick smile and ran down the side of the next sand dune, and Jack would be teasing about childish enthusiasm brought on by alien deserts, except he was so glad to see it that he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

The second grouping of crystals didn't seem very different from the first once they reached it. There was nothing that looked like a 'we were here' sign, but Daniel was walking slowly among the crystals anyway, bending over them to take a closer look. There was a reason why Jack had decided the mission would end when Carter was done--Daniel would probably never be done here unless he was dragged away.

Jack glanced back, saw Teal'c's figure as a speck in the distance still standing guard over Carter, and followed Daniel down the side of the dune until the rest of the team was out of sight.

"Oh, look, Jack," Daniel said, pointing eagerly. "Here's one that's _not_ broken."

Jack crouched next to him and peered at the intact bundle of crystals. "So," he said.

"Hello?" Daniel said to the crystal.

Jack snorted. "Daniel."

" _Nayuyu_?"

"Daniel," Jack repeated. "It's a rock."

"Robert's been playing around in the lab with a device that's sensitive to sound," Daniel said. "There was one that opened when he said the word 'friend.' Well, it was 'friend' in a fictional language, so he said it as a joke, but it actually meant 'what is your name' in an Egyptian dialect. And we've seen technology that responds to voices or words."

"It's not technology," Jack said; "it's a rock."

Ignoring him, Daniel leaned closer. "Look, take a look at this group here, the intact ones. Do you see something moving inside the crystals?"

Jack rolled his eyes but acquiesced, circling to the other side of the bunch of crystals Daniel was talking to and leaning in close to study them better.

Daniel shifted forward until his nose was almost touching the crystal. "Hey, Jack, I thi-- _Ahh_!"

Just as Jack looked up to see Daniel fly back into the side of the sand dune, something slammed into him, and he only had time to hope there weren't any shards of crystal behind him before he faded away and felt nothing more.

XXXXX

**_3 May 1999; P3X-562; 1000 hrs_ **

Sam turned to follow Teal'c to the Stargate, then stopped and picked up that flake Daniel had been playing with before. She'd found a wonderfully (mostly) intact piece of crystal, and if she needed a bit for material analysis, she might as well bring back a few pieces that were already broken instead of chipping away at the whole one.

Actually...

"Teal'c," she said, gesturing to him with a hand while rubbing over the smooth, broken face of the crystal with the other. "Can you come and take a look at this?" She handed the shard to him. "Does this side look more glassy to you? Like it was heated and then cooled quickly?"

"Perhaps it was melted," he said, handing it back, but his expression confirmed her suspicion.

"We've seen these marks before, haven't we."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "Jaffa staff weapons cause this kind of damage."

"Exactly. But there haven't been any Jaffa around here in a while?" she said.

"I do not believe so. However, tracks are quickly obscured in sand."

"Yeah. Maybe it's time to get back home until we know more." When Teal'c inclined his head, Sam reached up to her radio and said, "Sir, we've loaded up the FRED, and we're seeing signs of what might be past Jaffa activity. We're ready to go when you are."

No answer.

"Colonel O'Neill, this is Carter. Please respond, over."

"Daniel, can you hear me? Over."

"Huh," she said, frowning. "Not answering. Teal'c, you wanna try--"

"Captain Carter," Teal'c said, pointing.

"Colonel, Daniel!" she called when she finally saw the two figures walking toward them. "Why didn't you answer?"

Aaand... _still_ not answering.

"Oh, great," she said to Teal'c, warily eyeing the stiffness in their gait. "You think they got on each other's nerves sometime in the last _half_ an _hour_?"

Teal'c watched the approaching figures carefully. "That appears to be the case."

Sam sighed. "And just when we'd finally found a happy, safe little planet..."

"Indeed."

The thing was, Daniel and the colonel argued. Not all the time, of course, but they'd started once the colonel had gotten used to the SGC and Daniel had gotten used to Earth and had kept going on and off after that. Really, Daniel the only one who _could_ have a full-scale argument with the colonel without tripping over any chain of command; most of the other civilians tried not to get in O'Neill's way.

But whether it was about the meaning of life, about family, about what Daniel was and wasn't allowed to do, or just teenage moodiness that collided with sarcastic grouchiness, it usually ended with Daniel not talking any more than he had to, and then the colonel so annoyed after a while that he stopped trying to talk back.

Now, neither of them even gave Sam or Teal'c more than a look to acknowledge their presence: no sarcastic comment about a yellow-brick road leading home, and no questions about the crystal samples or suggestions about what kind of rituals they might have been used for.

"Anything interesting?" she asked Daniel, who looked at her, then shook his head.

"No."

Okay. Awkward. Sam cleared her throat. "I have what I needed, sir. Should we head back?"

The colonel gave her a long look, then tilted his head, like he was thinking of something witty to say, but then only said flatly, "Yes."

Exchanging a glance with Teal'c, Sam passed by both of them on her way to the DHD, close enough to be certain they hadn't somehow been Goa'ulded--a long shot, maybe, but she wasn't taking any chances--but, apparently, they were just pissed off at something. She dialed, sent her IDC, and steered the FRED carefully through before following her team back.

XXXXX

**_3 May 1999; SGC, Earth; 1030 hrs_ **

"No, sir, we couldn't determine for certain what the purpose was," Sam said, keeping an eye on her two teammates and still not sure exactly what their problem was. She paused, expecting Daniel to jump in with the ideas he'd been so excited about before, but, when he continued to sit in silence, she said, "Possibilities range from superstition to advanced crystal technology, but I'd rather wait for analysis on the crystals I brought back before trying to draw any conclusions."

"Mr. Jackson," General Hammond said, "do you have anything to add?"

Daniel looked up from the table he'd been staring at and said, "No." Teal'c raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"Colonel O'Neill?"

The colonel turned away from where he'd been staring out the window into the 'gate room, then said simply, "No."

Sam exchanged another glance with Teal'c, then met the general's frown and shrugged slightly to say she didn't know, either. "Teal'c and I noticed that some of the crystals seemed to have been broken by some kind of energy weapon, sir," she offered, "possibly staff weapons."

"Staff weapons?" the general repeated. "You're sure about that?"

"No, not sure," she conceded. "I can do some tests, but they were definitely deliberately broken by something that generated heat and a lot of shear."

"Then where are the people who did it?"

"They could have left," she suggested. "The people may have been attacked by Jaffa. However, the fact that those crystals were so thoroughly destroyed makes me think they must have served some purpose to begin with."

"All right," General Hammond finally said. "Go and get cleaned up. I want to know if anything comes up about those crystals."

"Yes, sir," she said, grateful both for the end of an awkward debriefing and for the chance to get the sand out of her...well. Out of her uniform.

The general hesitated another moment, narrowing his eyes at the colonel and Daniel, then said pointedly, "And make sure all of you get your post-mission medical exams done before leaving the base today." He nodded to them all and returned to his office.

The SGC had finally realized that there were, in fact, women on base, and there were now separate showers for each gender, rather than just the one on a rotating schedule. They did have to stop by SG-1's locker room first, however, just to grab their belongings, except Daniel, who wandered off on his own to the public lockers.

Usually, she tried not to pay attention to her teammates' after-mission routines. Modesty wasn't something they really thought about when they spent half their time trying to save each other's lives, but there were lines when they weren't in the field. Still, the mission today felt off, somehow, so she peeked over her shoulder at Colonel O'Neill when he stalled an extra minute in front of his locker.

He was shuffling through something. There was a photo in his hand of a little boy. Sam thought of the tiny bits she'd heard about the colonel's son from the alternate Dr. Jackson last year--

_("...suicide mission...Jack said no one should have to outlive his own son. That's why he was willing to...")_

\--and hastily turned away and headed for the showers.

When she got to her lab, she almost expected to find Daniel, considering how interested he'd been in the crystals, but the lab was buzzing with various scientists and technicians and no Abydonian linguists. He'd probably gone to find Dr. Rothman and the other archaeologists to discuss historical uses of crystals, and when Sam saw him next, he'd have cooled off from whatever he was mad about and would be buzzing with new ideas again. At the very least, he was usually able to put that kind of thing aside for work.

"What have you got?" she asked the technician she'd asked to look at the crystal.

"Passed all decontamination protocols," the scientist said, "but I was able to pick up a low-level EM field."

Maybe they _were_ technology of some sort, just not the types of Goa'uld crystals they were used to seeing. "Okay," she told the other woman. "Thank you; I'll take over from here."

...x...

Teal'c walked in some time later, looking around self-consciously--her lab wasn't a usual haunt for the two of them. "Hey, come on in," she said, standing and pushing her laptop to one side when she saw him.

"Captain Carter," Teal'c said, "I am concerned. O'Neill did not meet me in the gymnasium at our appointed time. He is at none of his usual locations."

Sam checked her watch and frowned. "Really? Maybe he's busy with something else and forgot."

"Then you do not believe something is wrong," he checked, his tone saying he disagreed but was willing to be persuaded.

The problem was, she wasn't sure enough to persuade anyone of anything. "I...well, I don't really know," she said. "He and Daniel have both been a little weird since we got back, don't you think? Do you know if they ever showed up for their exams in the infirma--"

She was cut off as Robert Rothman stormed into the lab. "Captain Carter! What the heck happened out there?"

"Uh...excuse me?" she said, glancing at Teal'c.

"That mission you were just on, P3X, uh, 5...whatever. What happened to Daniel?" the archaeologist demanded.

"Dr. Rothman, what are you talking about?"

"How did he seem this morning before you left?"

"He was...bouncing off the walls," Sam said. "Um, excited, happy. Why? I assumed he was in your office."

"Oh," Rothman said, "he's in our office, all right. And you know what he just asked me?"

"What?" Sam asked apprehensively.

He noticed the other scientists staring at their loud conversation and lowered his voice to something less than a shout. "He asked me if Skaara was around somewhere. Like I was maybe hiding him under my desk or something."

That made so little logical sense that the only response Sam could think of was, "He...what?"

"I know! He had that Goa'uld dictionary you gave him a year ago, and he actually pointed at the picture in it and asked where his brother was, and...Captain, I don't-- _we_ don't talk about, you know, stuff like that. We argue about our job and his education, but this stuff? This is your territory," he said, waving a hand in Teal'c and her general direction. "I'm not--look, just, was someone keeping an eye on him out there? Because that's _not_ normal, and whatever happened to him..."

"But the colonel was with him the entire..." she started, then stopped.

Uh-oh.

Rothman looked between her and Teal'c. "What? Are they pissed at each other again? 'Cause this goes way beyond that."

Sam didn't have time to be amused that even Rothman, who didn't always seem to notice social interaction, had the same first thought that she had had, before Teal'c told him, "Colonel O'Neill has also been behaving abnormally."

"Well, there! I'm telling you, something must've happened!"

Logic later; act now. "Where is he now?" Sam asked urgently. "Is he acting like..."

"Honestly," Rothman said, "at first I thought he having some sort of insane, like, post-traumatic flashback, but now I'm thinking that's not it, either." Sam raised her eyebrows, exchanging another concerned look with Teal'c. "Guys, you don't understand! I know what he's like when he's upset, but this is... Captain, _something_ happened to him. It's like he's a completely different person. Who looks like Daniel. _And_ , you know, knows everything Daniel knows, but still."

And that...sounded like a Goa'uld. It still felt wrong, but Sam gave Teal'c a firm nod. Whatever was going on, at best their team was in danger; at worst, they had a deadly security breach.

" _Unscheduled off-world activation!_ "

Sam looked reflexively toward the speakers. With Colonel O'Neill acting oddly, too, she and Teal'c needed to be in the control room in case something was up. "We need to see what this is about and have someone track down Colonel O'Neill," she said, her brain whirring through options and starting to discard bad ones one by one. "Dr. Rothman, do not approach Daniel yourself. Call security and have them bring him to the infirmary, under guard."

"Wh--wait, what?" the archaeologist asked incredulously. "Captain!"

"Look, if something has happened to him, it's for his safety, too. Tell them not to hurt him, but we can't take any chances until we know what's going on. Bring a zat," she added and ignored the way his eyes bugged out. "Teal'c, let's go."

XXXXX

**_3 May 1999; P3X-562; 1300 hrs_ **

"--you copy? Teal'c, can you hear me? _Yi shay_ , Teal'c, Sam, this is Daniel; I need your help, _please_. Do you copy?"

Pain stabbed into Jack's head as he woke. _Ow_. What the hell?

_Stop. Don't let them know you're awake_.

Wait--there _was_ no 'them.' Was there?

As he tried to figure out what had happened before opening his eyes, the pain spiked higher when someone shook him.

"Jack." Something pressed lightly against the side of his neck. "Jack, wake up, please, wake _up_."

Now _that_ was a familiar voice.

Jack opened his eyes and found himself staring at some part of Daniel's head. Daniel's ear was right over his mouth-- _checking for breathing_ , he recognized with approval--and he spoke directly into it. "Daniel?"

Daniel yelped and jerked away. "Jack! Oh. Jack? You weren't waking up, and I didn't know what to do, so I've been trying to radio Sam and Teal'c, but they aren't answering, and I didn't want to leave in case...in case...are you okay?"

"Easy, easy," he said, sitting up cautiously as the throbbing faded a little, leaving the ache in the rest of his muscles to take center stage. A look around them showed no one but them. That helped not at all, so... "What happened?"

"Are you okay?" Daniel repeated anxiously as he knelt next to Jack. He was shivering, too, though it was hard to say if it was from nerves or what felt like odd little electrical jitters in Jack's own limbs.

"Little headache," Jack said, catching a hand as it tried to explore the back of his head. "I'm fine. Daniel--Daniel, stop! Listen to me. What happened?"

Exhaling shakily, Daniel reclaimed his hand and raked it through his already mussed and sand-streaked hair. "I don't know. I just woke up, maybe five minutes ago." He checked his watch. "Six minutes."

"You were knocked out?" Jack said, shifting to a more comfortable position where he could grab hold of Daniel's chin. Pupils a little big--easily from adrenaline alone--but even. Pulse fast, but strong and steady. "Did you hit your head or..."

"Jack, no, I'm okay--"

"Well, _something_ knocked you out!"

"Well, I woke up first!" Daniel twisted away, and if he winced and rubbed his head, well, he had a point, and Jack had a pretty monstrous headache, too. "And I don't _know_. I didn't see whatever it was that hit us."

Jack reached for his weapon.

"Your MP5 is gone."

"I can see that," Jack said. He started to ask for an inventory of their things, then thought again. Carter or Teal'c would've done that, but--

"They left your sidearm," Daniel said anyway, as if he'd asked, "and mine, and our radios. My pack is gone, and my glasses. I don't think they took anything from our vests."

Okay, then. "GDO?"

"I have mine. I didn't see yours, but I don't know where you keep it."

"All right," Jack said, checking the pocket inside his jacket to find with relief that his GDO was there, after all. Why would their attackers have taken some things but left others?

"Your hat's gone, too."

Jack raised a hand to his head and felt only hair. "Of course it is," he muttered. "Carter and Teal'c?"

"I told you," Daniel replied tensely, "I tried to reach them by radio, but they aren't answering!"

Jack held out a hand. "Okay. It's okay. You followed all the right procedures. Now let me try." Daniel sat back on his heels. Jack keyed his radio. "This is O'Neill. Carter, Teal'c, do you copy?" No answer. "Captain Carter, please respond."

"See?" Daniel said when only silence and static greeted them. "Do you think something happened to them?"

"They might be perfectly fine, so no panicking yet. Now...we're going to go back to where they just were and if they're not where we left them, we'll check at the 'gate. If something was just wrong with the radios, they might have decided to rendezvous there."

"If there were something wrong with the radios, they would have come to find us," Daniel said, but he pushed unsteadily to his feet, grimacing, and watched until Jack had staggered his way up as well. "And remember the crystals we were looking at before? I think they're missing."

Jack took a quick glance back at where Daniel was pointing and said, "You think someone attacked us to grab a couple of these things?" What the hell kind of weapon had they used, anyway? It was like being zatted or electrocuted or something. He checked his watch, noted the time that had passed, and felt a sudden, grateful lurch that he hadn't woken up to find Daniel with his heart stopped, or the other way around.

"Maybe it's taboo to touch the crystals and we broke their laws," Daniel suggested. "I don't know. But there are no tracks--just ours."

"Good catch," Jack said absently, pulling his pistol and thumbing off the safety. Taking that cue, Daniel drew his zat gun, too, but didn't prime it. "One thing at a time--we find the others and report back to base if we can't. Keep an eye out as we go. If you see or hear anything, or you think someone's trying to sneak up on us, get down and tell me. Okay?"

Daniel nodded.

Once more, Jack asked, "You all right?"

"Yes. Fine." As if to prove it, he straightened slightly, his zat held loosely at his side.

Jack hesitated a second longer, then nodded, taking care not to react when his head protested. "Good. Stay close."

It didn't take long to find that neither his astrophysicist nor his favorite Jaffa was in that first crystal pit.

"Don't worry," Jack said calmly, then pointed at the ground. "See the tracks?"

"Uh...yes," Daniel said, squinting at the boot prints that were still clear in the ground. "In the direction of the Stargate." He took a breath and visibly relaxed a little.

"Exactly," Jack said, starting off. "No big deal. They probably didn't come find us because they just...didn't want to get lost, and they knew we'd find them at the 'gate. Right?"

Daniel looked at him indignantly at the tone but kindly didn't comment on the fact that Carter didn't tend to get lost, not at this short a distance, and that Teal'c never did. "Yes, sir, Colonel Jack, sir," he patronized right back as he readjusted his grip on his zat. "No big deal."

Jack snorted. "That's the spirit, Mr. Jackson."

When no one was at the Stargate, though, it became harder to pretend everything was all right.

"I can't see that far without my glasses," Daniel whispered as they crouched some distance away. "Are the footprints...?"

"Right up to the...Stargate," Jack replied softly, frowning. "What the..."

"Someone forced them to leave?" Daniel suggested. "The general ordered them back to base?"

"Maybe. Or they're hurt and didn't have a chance to contact us." Daniel's head whipped toward him in alarm, and he amended, "Or something. Here's the plan. We'll 'gate back to the SGC--you go first, I'll make sure you get through, and--"

"Wait."

"Daniel, there are still hostiles somewh--"

"Jack, _wait_. Where's the FRED?"

Upon second glance, he could see tracks--no doubt from the FRED being wheeled forward--and other sets of footprints that went from the crystal pit to the DHD and disappeared at the Stargate. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it looked like just a couple of sets of tracks, and not dragged or struggling. So they'd had time to take the FRED, which meant...

"You've gotta be kidding me," Jack said, standing in disbelief. "They left?"

"No," Daniel protested. "They wouldn't have... You don't really think they went back to the SGC? Without us?"

"They wouldn't." But annoyance began to war with apprehension, because it was really starting to look that way.

"Jack?"

Shaking his head angrily, Jack gestured toward the DHD. "Dial home, Daniel. We'll get this sorted out once we get there." And, oh, was someone in for a lashing.

"But--"

"Daniel! Dial. Home."

With another confused look that bordered on hurt, Daniel put his zat away as they made their way to the DHD. Jack kept his gun out, since, whatever Carter and Teal'c were doing with this disappearing act--what the hell was that!--they'd still been unconscious for almost three hours with no explanation, which meant someone around here had attacked them, and he refused to believe it had nothing to do with half his team going AWOL.

Once the wormhole was established, Jack stalked angrily toward the Stargate, only to hear Daniel's urgent, "Jack, no!" Jack whirled, looking for a target, but Daniel only shook his head and said, "My IDC hasn't been accepted. The iris--"

"Did you dial the right--"

"Of _course_ , I did, Jack, look at the glyphs!"

"Then...they locked you _out_?"

"I don't think so," Daniel said, staring at his GDO. "The code wasn't rejected. It's like they're just waiting and trying to decide whether--"

"Dammit," he muttered, punching in the SG-1 code as well. "Just let us in!"

It was another good seven, eight, nine seconds--enough time to scramble the security teams--before his GDO gave him the green light, just as Daniel called in relief, "Accepted. We can go."

"Yeah. C'mon."

Daniel hesitated at the event horizon. "You think...?"

"Come on," Jack repeated, leaving his gun down at his side but ready. "We'll go through at the same time." He hesitated, then added, "First sign of something wrong--"

"Get down and get out of the way," Daniel finished, and though his fingers were clenched again around his zat, Jack decided there was nothing else for it and stepped through.

XXXXX

**_3 May 1999; SGC, Earth; 1330 hrs_ **

"Hey!" Jack shouted when they stepped into the SGC. His eyes sought the control room and immediately found Carter and Teal'c standing next to Hammond. "What do you think you're doing, leaving without us?"

"Uh, Jack," Daniel said nervously from next to him. "I think maybe you should...not wave your gun around."

"I'm not waving..." he started, then trailed off when he noticed the weapons pointed at them. At him, mostly, because...well, there was the gun in his hand, while Daniel's zat was lowered and pointing at the ground, finger held obviously away from the trigger. "What's with all the ordinance?"

_"Airman, relieve them of their weapons,"_ Hammond's voice said.

"Oh, c'mon," Jack complained, angry now that he could clearly see the rest of his team watching and doing nothing. They were the ones who'd goddamned _left_ , after all, and what was that about, anyway? If they'd been hurt or something, he could understand, but _this_?

Except there was a _big_ security force there and a wide-eyed civilian standing next to him, so... He carefully turned his weapon away and held up his hands.

"Uh, what's...?" Daniel said, tensing as someone approached him.

"It's okay," Jack lied. "There must be some misunderstanding." A coolly efficient marine took the pistol out of his hand, the bayonet from his belt, and a few more explosive toys from various pockets.

"Teal'c, Sam," Daniel called, standing frozen as someone took his zat and searched him. "What happened?"

"Daniel, shut up a minute," Jack asked as calmly as he could while restraining himself from attempting to slap searching hands away from his person.

Carter gave Teal'c a meaningful look, covering the microphone with her hand as Teal'c said something to her and Hammond.

The general nodded, looking supremely annoyed--what the hell was _he_ doing looking annoyed, anyway?--and ordered, _"Take them to holding cells."_

"What?" Daniel said as he was steered toward the door while Jack was still being patted down on the ramp. "Wait, wait, but..."

"For crying out loud!" Jack yelled at the window. "At least let us stay together! It's the least you could do after that stunt you pulled out there. You don't think he's scared enough already?"

"I'm not scared," Daniel snapped back immediately.

"Okay," Jack said.

"I'm not!"

_"Do as he says,"_ Hammond said into the microphone.

...x...

"I've been thinking," Daniel said after someone had tossed them into MRIs, taken blood samples, and locked them into a room.

"Yeah?" Jack said.

"Maybe something affected Sam and Teal'c's minds, and that's why they left and didn't come back. Maybe _they_ attacked us."

"None of the weapons we were carrying would've felt like that," Jack said, _really_ hoping his team hadn't been possessed by any alien something. "And a lot of stuff wouldn't even affect Teal'c, and Fraiser would've found something, and there were still no tracks but ours."

"They could have walked in our tracks from where they were to where we were and back," Daniel suggested.

"Wrong weapons," Jack reminded him. "And wrong shoe size. And _why_ would anyone do that?"

"Okay," Daniel said, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. "Then maybe the crystals did something to us."

Jack stopped pacing at looked at him. "You're sitting on the floor again."

Daniel blinked upward at him. "You're speaking in non sequiturs again."

Throwing his hand into the air, he said, "You're the one suggesting that a rock attacked us."

"I didn't see anyone else around."

"So it was _obviously_ the rock."

Daniel sighed. He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes instead of answering.

"Hey," Jack said, bending over him and suddenly very aware of his own still-present headache and the shivering that hadn't quite subsided yet in his muscles, which he was thinking now was not from adrenaline but rather from whatever had shocked them and knocked them out. "You okay?"

"I'm okay!" Daniel said exasperatedly, eyes snapping open. "Stop asking me that."

"I just want to make sure your brain's not scrambled. More than it already was, I mean."

"Well, it's not," he grumbled, then scowled at Jack's snort.

The cell was nice and neat in that bare, don't-give-them-anything-that-could-be-a-weapon sort of way. It was like the room where Teal'c used to stay, when they'd thought the Jaffa was a dangerous enemy. There was a chair in the room, but Jack really preferred being on his feet right now and Daniel was alternating between staring _at_ his feet and coming up with wild theories that were rapidly becoming tinged with alarm.

"Jinx," Jack said, regaining Daniel's attention. "My own personal jinx."

"Oh, come _on_ ," Daniel complained, but he looked annoyed now instead of mildly panicked.

"I'm just saying, look at the record yourself."

"This wasn't my fault! Maybe SG-1 is a jinx for _me_ ," he retorted. "I take most of my missions with other teams, and _they_ always turn out perfectly normal. And I've been thinking."

"Will you give it a rest?" Jack said.

"What should I do, then, just sit here?" Daniel's posture was casual and his expression annoyed, but he was watching Jack like a hawk, as he often did when he was unsure about something.

"Fine. What are you thinking this time?"

"Do you remember when you went to P3R-233?"

It took a second--because not everyone kept a copy of the Stargate database in his head--and then Jack frowned. "Yeah," he said slowly. "With the mirror thing."

"And the person from the alternate reality came through it. Maybe--"

"Ah!" Jack raised a hand. "No."

"I'm just saying, maybe we're in--"

Jack pointed a warning finger at him. "Don't say it."

"Alternate reality," he said mulishly.

Jinxed. "Dammit, Daniel!"

"What?"

"We're not in an alternate reality," Jack said.

Daniel looked at the camera, too, then lowered his voice, even though Jack knew whoever was watching could probably still hear. "Jack, they put us in a cell. Why would they do that if they're...you know. The real them? _Our_ them?"

"No."

"Jack!"

"Daniel, listen to me. Our IDCs worked, so there's a me and a you in this reality, and if this were an alternate reality, then where are the other _we_? No. Nuh-uh. We are _exactly_ where we belong. Well, not in a cell," he amended. "You know what I mean."

Daniel huffed loudly but slumped back grumpily in concession. "Okay, then how about this." Jack sighed. Daniel ignored him and went on. "Something attacked us, but it also attacked Sam and Teal'c, and when they woke up, we didn't answer them, so they left, thinking we weren't there anymore, and went to find backup."

" _It_ attacked us?" Jack repeated.

"Sorry for not assigning a gender to my pronouns," Daniel grumbled. "I thought I saw something in the crystal just before I got hit, remember? Maybe it was an automatic defense...system...thing. I don't know. But we know there are a lot of technologies that crystals are essential for."

Jack didn't really want to try to argue that, so he said instead, "You just ended your sentence with a preposition."

Daniel's eyebrows crunched down in irritation and he snapped, "Well, why _shouldn't_ I?"

"Because...you're not supposed to."

"See, see, there, you see!" Daniel said, leaping to his feet and glaring now. "You just ripped apart an infinitive and threw away the half of it with any lexical information! And I'm not making fun of _you_ , am I, because it's not grammatically incorrect in English, just like ending sentences with prepositions isn't always grammatically incorrect in English. That's just the, the...the stuffy grammar that some people prescribe, without taking into account the--"

"Oh, God," Jack groaned, horrified that he'd actually been driven bored and stupid enough to instigate an argument about grammar with Daniel. He dragged the chair into the corner so he could stand on it and yell into the camera, " _Get us the hell out of here_!"

The door opened.

"Fast service," he said from on top of the chair.

"Colonel?" General Hammond said.

"General?" Jack replied, stepping down.

The general gave each of them a hard look, then nodded to the men guarding the door. "There's something you need to see."

Carter was behind Hammond, and, once they'd walked out, Jack saw Teal'c waiting, as well. She wore a confused, guilty expression on her face as they passed her; Teal'c's expression was hard, though, and both of them took up the rear, like guards.

"If you are who you say you are," Hammond said, "then I apologize."

Nothing good ever followed sentences like that.

As the time they were marched to the briefing room, the monitor on the table didn't register until Daniel said, "When was that? I've never been in one of the cells before with Robert."

Jack nudged him aside enough to see the monitor, too, where a Daniel was sitting on the floor of a holding cell, Dr. Rothman standing inside the door with an armed airman next to him. "This is a live feed," he said, seeing the timestamp before turning to the others in the room. "All due respect, sir...who the hell is that?"

"We came back through the 'gate with you and Daniel, sir," Carter said, then winced. "Well, obviously not _you_ two...but that person you're watching right now is one of the people who came back with us. We thought they were you."

"Maybe this _is_ an alternate reality," Daniel mused. "Wait, but then, how do you know we're who we say we are? Maybe you brought back the right people, and _we_ might be the imposters."

Jack ground his teeth together. "Daniel!"

"It's a valid question," he defended.

"Well, that's why we took so long to let you out," Carter admitted. "Not the...alternate reality thing--that doesn't make any sense"--Jack shot Daniel a smug look--"but we had to be sure you were you. Now we know that whatever _that_ is..."--she pointed at the monitor--"it isn't human. It's showing up as a big, amorphous splotch on all the scans we could perform on it. We stopped, because it seemed to be in pain, and we figured that knowing it wasn't human was good enough to let _you_ out, at least."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "We also observed the manner of your interaction while in the holding cell. It conformed with our expectations."

Since they'd spent most of their stay in the cell arguing about grammar and militant rocks, Jack thought there was probably an insult in there somewhere, but he decided not to touch it. They weren't locked up anymore, so he was going to take that and keep quiet.

Carter shook her head. "We did think that you...that the other 'O'Neill' and 'Daniel' were acting strangely. Dr. Rothman expressed similar concerns, and I sent security up to contain this guy just before you came back from the planet. Dr. Rothman just went there now to try to figure out what he wants." She fiddled with a remote until they could hear what was happening inside the cell.

_"...they here?_ " Not-Daniel said. _"I was looking for my family."_

_"Who are you,"_ Rothman answered, _"and why are you impersonating--"_

_"Skaara!"_ Not-Daniel called from the monitor, standing up and trying to look out the door as the real Daniel in the briefing room flinched in surprise. _"Tano'ta, sinu'ai? Sha'uri!"_

_"Stop it,"_ Rothman snapped. _"Dan--whatever you are. What did you do to him?"_

_"To Skaara? I saw him on a ship. But there was a bomb. Sha'uri said he--"_

_"No, I'm talking about Daniel Jackson. And Colonel O'Neill. What did you do to them?"_ Rothman asked. Not-Daniel shook his head, as if confused, and backed away.

_"We did not wish to hurt them."_

Rothman looked at the camera and shrugged.

Carter turned the sound back off. "Wow," Daniel said into the following quiet. He cleared his throat. "Okay."

"At least he's not denying he's an imposter," she commented.

"Where's...the other guy that you thought was me?" Jack said. "Why isn't _he_ locked up?"

"I've just sent someone to find him," Hammond said. " _I_ want to know how they got onto this base. Captain, I thought you said there was no sign of life on that planet."

Daniel held up a finger. "Well..."

"Don't start about homicidal crystals," Jack told him.

"There was nothing else there," he insisted. "And they disappeared just as we got attacked."

"General," Carter said, "those crystals give off energy in some form, and they _were_ all we saw on the planet. It's possible that they're more than they seem. I'd like to take another look at them, and maybe it would be a good idea for someone to help question... _him_." She nodded at Not-Daniel on the monitor, where Rothman was making a valiant effort but being generally unsuccessful in extracting useful information.

The general nodded. "All right. Teal'c, I'd like you and Colonel O'Neill to find out what that being is doing here. Captain Carter, tell us immediately if you discover anything with those crystals. Mr. Jackson, perhaps you can assist her."

"Yes, sir," she said, immediately starting for her lab and filling Daniel in as they went. "All we've been able to determine is that the crystals were destroyed by high-energy blasts. Now..."

Jack glanced at Teal'c, then led the way to the holding cell.


	26. Unity, Part II

**_26 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 1730 hrs_ **

It looked exactly like Daniel, right down to the way it was once again slouching against the wall, though it sat far too still to be the real deal.

"Jack," Not-Daniel said.

"That's Colonel O'Neill to you," Jack said curtly. Not-Daniel tilted his head but didn't argue.

"You are angry," it said, sounding puzzled.

"Y'think?" Jack told it, expecting an eye-roll. He received a curious look instead.

"What is your purpose here?" Teal'c demanded.

"I am looking for my family," it said, eager and almost childlike in a way that made it sound even younger than Daniel. "Can you take me to them?"

"That's enough!" Jack said, and if it was hard to keep his voice sharp when it looked at him with Daniel's wounded expression, the memory of a frantic real-Daniel trying to wake him up off-world was pretty good incentive. "Why did you attack us and come here?"

It looked down at its knees. "We did not intend to hurt you. We attempted only to return your greeting."

"We?"

"You saw us in another form--you call us 'crystals.'"

Jack blinked. He turned to Teal'c and Rothman. "Did he just say--"

"He did, O'Neill," Teal'c confirmed.

"Ah," Jack said.

There was an odd moment in which Jack realized that they had, in fact, been attacked by homicidal crystals because Daniel tried to talk to them. It was close enough, anyway, that he could needle Daniel about it for the next several months, at least. It might have been funny, except the supposedly innocent Not-Daniel was still not looking so innocent, given that he was looking for a couple of people with snakes in their heads.

"Why are you here?" Rothman asked.

There was a long silence. Not-Daniel stood, unfolding with a poise that the real Daniel hadn't yet grown into, but didn't answer. Jack couldn't tell if it was thinking or just not answering.

Teal'c stepped forward and growled, "You will answer the question."

"He is not here," it said, then wrinkled its brow.

Jack folded his arms. "Who?"

"Skaara."

"Ah...no."

"I thought I would find him and Sha'uri if I went through the _chaapa'ai_."

"Well," Jack said, his confusion growing as he began to suspect that the being really believed what it was saying or was a much better actor than any crystal should be, "you thought wrong."

"But I cannot return to Abydos until I have found them," it said earnestly, then frowned, as if remembering something. "I did find them. But I lost Shifu."

"You've never _been_ to Abydos," Jack said, choosing to ignore the rest for now and focus on the one thing that made some kind of almost-sense to him.

Not-Daniel gave him a tiny shrug, both shoulders moving minutely, mechanically. "I have not been to Abydos. But _he_ has. He would return, but he cannot yet. I was only trying to find them for him, because I wished to heal his hurt."

Jack caught Teal'c's eye, surprised by the blunt statement and then surprised at how much it surprised him. "You have a funny way of showing how much you care," he told it.

"We did not understand your injuries," it said. "We looked into your minds to seek the source of your pain, but your deepest pain did not reside in your physical forms. I thought that if I could find his family, it would make him well again."

There wasn't much he could say to that.

"I must go through the Stargate," it said abruptly.

"Why?" Rothman spoke up.

"If I remain here, my energy will disintegrate. I have already stayed too long. I must return."

Jack turned to Teal'c, and then to the archaeologist. "'Energy will disintegrate?' How does energy disintegrate? What's that mean?"

"You mean you'll die?" Rothman asked it.

Not-Daniel backed away a few steps until he hit a wall and slid down to a sitting position again. "I could hurt you. I do not wish to hurt you."

"Well, then...just don't," Jack said. "What do you mean--" Not-Daniel moaned, curling into himself. "Daniel?" he said before he could stop himself.

Electricity began to crackle through the being.

"Back, back!" Jack ordered, pushing Rothman into the farthest corner. "What the hell?"

XXXXX

**_26 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 1730 hrs_ **

"...I know for certain that these crystals were deliberately destroyed," Sam said as they walked quickly toward her lab. "Teal'c and I suspect Jaffa staff weapons, but we can't be certain."

"Then that planet was attacked by the Goa'uld at some point," Daniel summarized.

"Probably."

"There's just no reason to destroy them all like that unless it was to deprive the people of some resource, or even just to prove a point to them, yes?" he said. "So that means those crystals were definitely of importance to the people of that planet. Jack and I were looking at a few intact crystals just before we were hit by...whoever it was, but when we woke up, some of them were missing. Clearly, those crystals are worth more than we believed. I think if we find out what they are, we'll know exactly what's going on."

Sam glanced at him once and didn't answer.

When the pause became unnerving, he said feebly, "But that's just what I think."

"No, yeah," she said, shaking her head. "You're right. It's just that the whole time after we got back, I was waiting for you to say something like that. I can't believe..." She shook her head again and rubbed the back of her neck. "I can't believe we left you two out there, Daniel. We should've known better."

"Yes, you should have," Daniel told her, because it stung more than a little that two of his closest friends had been fooled. Then he felt bad when she winced. "I mean. Did they act so much like us?"

As they entered the lab, she grimaced. "Well, not exactly, but we thought you and the colonel were...uh...sulking at each other, and Teal'c and I really didn't want to get in the middle of it. So, about this crystal," she said, then hurried toward her laptop.

Daniel frowned, feeling like he'd just been insulted--but Jack had been, too, so _hah_ \--but he followed Sam to the bench without further argument.

"This is the one I brought back," Sam explained. "It's damaged, but not so much that I couldn't piece it together. I've been continuously recording the energy readings for the last few hours. I'm gonna go over this data, but feel free to look around." She sat down before her computer, studying what she'd been working on before.

Daniel leaned in close. "It's odd. I keep thinking that I see something..." Flickering, maybe? Not exactly a light inside the crystal, nor movement, but something between the two. "Hello?" he said to it tentatively.

A strange, mild feeling washed over him, and then a face appeared in the stone.

" _Ay_!" He leapt back, heart pounding.

"What?" Sam said, standing up quickly and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's...it, it...uh, just..." Daniel pointed at the crystal, and then he laughed, finally realizing. "Sam, that's exactly what happened on P3X-562! I leaned in to look at one of them, and I said 'hi,' and then something hit us!"

"So you did it _again_? Daniel!" Sam pulled him around to look at his eyes.

"Well, I didn't know it was--Sam, get off; it didn't do anything this time, but--but... _look_!"

She looked at the crystal just in time to see the face shrinking back into nothingness and gasped. "Holy--!"

"It was _me_ , Sam!" Daniel said excitedly. "See, it was imitating my face, and I felt something...I don't know, scanning me, maybe, but nothing like before, on the planet, so maybe _that_ thing could imitate people, too, but it was stronger, or not as damaged, so it could make complete copies but it also hit us harder. Right?"

Sam stared at the crystal a little longer, and then looked back at him. "What?"

" _Sam_ ," Daniel complained, because she'd untangled sentences more convoluted than that before.

"Okay, I get it," she said, tapping a finger absently as she thought. "You're saying that the other 'Daniel' and 'Colonel O'Neill' we brought back were actually...simulacra created by the crystal you found? And if it could make complete electronic copies of us...well, the body's practically just a mass of electric signals, and we can probably be made to perceive the signals as what we expect to see. That's why it can imitate our actions or maybe even copy our thoughts."

Daniel heard 'copy' and shrugged off the rest as over his head but probably right. "Let's try it again. Maybe it can talk to us."

"No, no, no, I don't think so," she said, stepping in front of him as he was about to turn toward it again. He sighed, thinking she was being cautious, even though he'd just _shown_ that it didn't hurt, but then she turned slightly and grinned at him. "My turn."

Sam bent over the crystal, hesitated, then said, "Hello?"

Even expecting it, they both still jumped as Sam's face appeared in the glistening blue stone, as if it had been carved from crystal, which it basically was, except for the carving part. "Hello," the crystal replied, and then, "Help us."

"Oh my God," Sam breathed, sharing a look with Daniel as he gestured for her to continue and tried not to bounce on the balls of his feet. They were talking to _sentient alien crystals_! "What are you?"

"Unity," the crystal said. "Energy. You would describe me thus."

"You asked for help," she said. "Why did you wait until now?"

The crystal that called its race Unity moved slightly, like it was swinging to face her. "Fear."

"Of what?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, of _course_ ," Sam said, understanding. "The Goa'uld. We thought it looked like the crystals had been destroyed by Goa'uld weapons."

"And we're human, so we look like Goa'uld hosts," Daniel said.

"Yes," the crystal said. "The Goa'uld came to our planet long ago. We were not afraid then, but when one of them touched us as you did, he was destroyed by our energy."

Daniel shivered, realizing for the first time that he and Jack could have suffered much worse than a few hours of unconsciousness and a headache. Realizing that... "Oh, gods," he said. "If the crystals were destroyed by Goa'uld weapons, and the crystals are actually life forms...those pits we found were actually some...some sort of..."

"Mass grave," Sam finished grimly, and Daniel's excitement dimmed.

"I must return," the Unity crystal said. "If I remain here, my energy will disintegrate."

"Disintegrate..." Sam repeated. Her eyes widened. "You mean...decay? Like..."

"I can no longer sustain this form," the crystal said, and then collapsed back into its previous shape.

"What?" Daniel asked Sam, but she was already walking back to her computer to look through whatever had been recorded there. "'Decay like...' what?"

"Uh oh," she said. "This crystal has been emitting ionizing particle radiation."

" _What_? They didn't test for radiation when you brought it back?"

"It's not constant, and not at dangerous levels, but if _this_ crystal is emitting that, and your doppelgangers are more advanced forms of this energy..."

"Uh oh," Daniel echoed. "Is that dangerous?"

"This one, probably not," she said, her eyes narrowing, and he could almost see the visible shift from scientist doing research to soldier on a mission. "But with a greater dose...yes."

"Jack and Teal'c went to--"

"Yeah, I know," she said, snapping an order to someone in the back to get the Unity crystal transported to Isolation Two before she started walking out, talking to Daniel over her shoulder until he caught up to her. "And that's not the biggest problem; at least the other 'Daniel' is locked up somewhere. The other 'O'Neill,' on the other hand, could cause a lot of damage if he isn't found soon. Oh, hold on," she added, then ran back into her lab and came back out with something in her hand. "For radiation," she explained, showing him the sensor.

They reached the holding cell where Unity-Daniel was being kept. Sam nodded to the airman at the door, and when it opened, a choked scream issued from within.

Both of them darted in, just in time to see a crackle of electricity fade from Unity-Daniel's body as it huddled on the floor. It twitched again and lay still.

"Sir!" Sam said.

Robert was against the far wall, with Jack standing in front of him like a shield, while Teal'c hovered at the other end of the small cell and looked like he was wishing he'd brought a weapon. "Carter," Jack said. "I'm thinking we shouldn't be in here."

Daniel looked at his simulacrum again, which seemed to have fallen unconscious. Or whatever the equivalent was. Could a crystal be unconscious? "He was yelling," he said. "Is he hurt?"

"Sounded like it was gonna explode or something," Robert said, easing out from behind Jack. "It said it would hurt us when its energy started to decay..."

"Not explode," Sam interrupted. "It's talking about the radiation. As it deteriorates, it's emitting nuclear radiation. We need to bring all of the crystal life forms back to P3X-562--especially _him_ and the fake 'O'Neill'--before someone's exposed to too much."

"Radiation?" Jack repeated.

She adjusted the meter in her hand. "Yes, sir. Levels look okay for now, but they'll go up again, I guarantee it."

"Peachy. Keep an eye on that, Captain. Did you two figure out what's going on?"

"We still don't understand why they came here and pretended to be us," Daniel said, "but we've communicated with one of the crystals in the lab."

Sam nodded. "Colonel, they were scared of us, because we look like the Goa'uld. They're victims, not the aggressors; their race was destroyed by the Goa'uld."

"Their race...of crystals?"

"Yes, sir, they seem to exist normally in that form," Sam said.

Jack only sighed, but his expression said, _Of course they do_.

"Well, apparently, they were trying to make up for hurting you guys," Robert explained, looking nervously at the simulacrum. "They actually seem to be trying very hard _not_ to hurt anyone. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have been able to distinguish emotional from physical pain."

Daniel found his gaze drawn to Jack's. "Emotional from... That's why he was...asking about--"

"It," Jack corrected him, then said, "Yeah."

Unity-Daniel stirred, flopping slowly onto his back and blinking at the ceiling. Daniel pushed down the feeling of how _odd_ it was to see himself like that, especially when it wasn't really himself, then knelt next to it. He reached out, then stopped halfway to the being's carotid artery, because it wasn't really there, was it, not the way it was for humans.

"Daniel, radiation is dangerous," Jack said sharply.

"It's not going to kill me," Daniel returned. "Sam said it's okay for now." The being's eyes turned toward him silently. "Hello?"

"You've got to stop doing that," Jack muttered, but it was halfhearted and he didn't make a move to stop anything, so Daniel ignored him.

"You have come to destroy me," Unity-Daniel said, scooting away from Daniel's reaching hand until it was scrunched against the wall.

"No, no," Daniel assured it, hands raised unthreateningly. "We know it was a...a misunderstanding. The Goa'uld are our enemy, too. We're going to help you get back home." He paused, realizing that no one had actually said that, and turned back. "We are, right?"

"Yeah, we will," Sam told him, while Jack looked like he'd very much like to get the aliens out of the base in whatever way he could.

"I only wished to help you," Unity-Daniel said.

"Um. Okay," Daniel said, knowing there had been some confusion but not quite understanding how anything was supposed to have been helped by doing this. "That's okay. It's better for everyone if you get home. So we're looking for the other being who came with you, but maybe we can send you through first until he's found."

"The other is still on this world."

"Yes, but we'll send him through as soon as--"

"I cannot leave while the other is still in danger."

Daniel frowned, realizing how alien and how _alive_ these beings were all at once, beings that could feel fear and remorse and regret, and perhaps solidarity, too, despite being so different.

"In that case," Sam said, "you'll have to stay in a shielded isolation room until then or someone will be hurt."

Unity-Daniel met his eyes, then said, "I do not wish to hurt you. I will be isolated."

Taking that as agreement, Daniel stood and reached a hand down to it, but when the other hand grasped his forearm, something shivered through him again, and it was suddenly Skaara who rose to his feet.

"Dan'yel," Skaara's voice said.

"Whoa," Robert said as Daniel stumbled a few steps back.

"It's not him," Jack said immediately. "Daniel, that's not--"

"I know," Daniel said, staring at Skaara's warm, wide smile that could twitch into a smirk whenever he had a trick ready to play. "I know it's... um," he said, deliberately not looking into his brother's eyes. "You should...go to...uh..."

"Follow Airman Thomas," Jack interrupted, pulling Daniel aside to make room for Unity-Skaara to leave. The being looked at Jack and then smiled at Daniel again before making his way out.

"Iso Two," Sam told them as they left, and then the cramped holding cell sank back into uncomfortable silence.

"Well..." Daniel said when he couldn't stand it anymore. "So where's the other one?"

"General Hammond will know," Jack said and began to lead them all out, exchanging a glance with Teal'c that Daniel had learned to interpret as the _'stand guard and don't let Daniel touch anything'_ look. "They must've found him somewhere by now. Then we can get this damn day over with."

Robert caught up to Daniel just after they left the cell, however, and asked, "Who was that?"

"Skaara," he answered, hands in his pockets and eyes fixed on the briefing room ahead. "That's what he looks like, anyway."

"Oh," Robert said.

They reached the general just before another airman reported that the other 'O'Neill' was nowhere on the base.

"He left?" the general demanded, scowling. "Then he could be anywhere."

"Actually," Sam said, sounding uncomfortable, "I've been thinking. The beings said they were trying to heal some...perceived pain in each of you, and I saw it rifling through a box at your locker, sir. He was looking at a photograph."

_Charlie_ , Daniel realized, because he'd glimpsed that box before, too. He turned to Jack with a sinking feeling, but Jack was already making his way to the nearest telephone and dialing.

"Come on," he muttered into the receiver. "Come on, Sara, pick up..."

A few seconds later, Jack slammed the receiver back down. "We've got to go after it."

XXXXX

**_26 April 1999; SGC, Earth; 1930 hrs_ **

"Where do you think you're going?" Jack asked.

Daniel looked up as he approached. "I'm not going with you to find the other crystal, Jack. I'm going to speak with the being in isolation here and see what we can learn about their experiences. They're making sure the radiation levels are safe first, so I'm just waiting for them to say it's okay. I want to start as soon as possible, before it gets too dangerous."

Jack gave him a sharp look. "The general told you to interrogate it?"

"He didn't ask me to. Everyone's content just sending them back. But I want to learn more about their race, and the general agreed to let me." It was unlikely, anyway, that the general would let him go with SG-1 to help deal with confused Tau'ri civilians and one confused P3X-562 being.

"And you're not doing this because it looks like your brother."

"No. Just...gathering information about an alien race. And Jack..."

"Daniel?"

He hesitated, then said carefully, "It can change shape, yeah? They think they're helping, but if it went looking for your wi--for Sara O'Neill, and...the box Sam saw it looking through... Just--I just mean, it might not look like Jack O'Neill anymore."

Jack stared at him, his expression unreadable so that Daniel couldn't tell if he had heard the _'Charlie'_ that Daniel was afraid to voice aloud, or, if he had heard it, what he was thinking now. Sam and Teal'c came around the corner then, and Jack finally nodded. "Yeah, I got it. Carter, the general?"

"He's on the phone with the local police, sir," Sam said. "They're checking Ms. O'Neill's house."

When General Hammond arrived, he took a quick look over all of them and said, "No one's at your wife's house, but one of the local hospitals admitted a J. O'Neill less than an hour ago."

"That's about when he would've start to break down," Sam said as Jack nodded and stepped into the elevator.x

"Be careful, SG-1," the general warned. "I'll notify the hospital and local officials while you're on your way. Good luck." The elevator doors closed and they began their ascent to the surface. The general turned to Daniel and warned, "If you want to talk to it, the electricity in that isolation room has been cut off to reduce damage. The radiation's still fine for now, but leave immediately if it becomes dangerous."

XXXXX

Daniel wished the being would take some other form. He supposed it probably didn't understand how emotions worked for humans, so it wasn't _its_ fault, but it was unnerving, nonetheless, to see Skaara's body when he _knew_ it was only an illusion. At least its mannerisms weren't quite right--Skaara was laughter and passion and movement, not this stillness that Unity was. He almost wanted to turn off his flashlight, but he supposed the technician in there with him, monitoring radiation levels, wouldn't appreciate being plunged into pitch blackness with a radioactive alien organism.

"Were there once many of your kind on your planet?" Daniel asked.

Unity seemed to think before saying, "It is impossible to quantify as you would count us. We are energy."

Of course. They called themselves 'Unity,' after all. "You mean that you're not separate entities, but rather one continuous life form?"

"We are distinct entities," it said, "but we are not separate."

"You're connected? Aware of each other, even?"

Unity tilted its head. "Yes."

( _Telepathic?_ ) Daniel scribbled into his notepad, like he wasn't talking to someone who was dying, or close to it, in whatever sense death applied to it. ( _Aware of each other but consider each other distinct entities._ )

Electricity crackled through Unity again, and it curled around itself as the technician tensed and looked at the energy readings on his handheld sensor. Daniel winced, wanting to do something--to comfort, maybe--but was stopped by the knowledge that his touch would only hurt himself and probably would not help at all.

When Unity stilled again, panting softly--( _did it have lungs? Was it acting the way it thought it should, based on human expectation?_ )--Daniel crouched next to him and carefully touched his arm, almost surprised that it felt like skin and not stone. A jolt made him snatch his hand back, but it was no worse than the tiny shock of touching a metal railing sometimes, and when he tried again, nothing happened.

Unity looked up at him and said, in Abydonian, " _I do not wish to hurt you._ "

"Mr. Jackson," the technician said, motioning him back. Reluctantly, Daniel let go and shuffled a few steps backward until he was sitting against the wall, separated from Unity by an arm's length.

" _Let us take you back_ ," Daniel told it, seeing no reason to force it to speak in English if it didn't want to. It was taking the language from his brain, presumably, so it really didn't matter at all.

" _No. There is still another of us on your planet_."s

" _They are looking for the other now. We will take him back also._ "

Unity shook its head. " _I cannot leave while he is still in danger_."

Daniel leaned back, thinking. No one was to be left behind. Were its motivations its own, or were they the motivations of the person whose mind it had scanned? Did the crystals that made up Unity--what they had taken to be no more than inanimate objects--hold ideals and principles similar to those of humans?

" _Why do you exist now in this form?_ " he asked. " _Do you normally exist as crystals? How do you choose a form to take?"_

" _I believed I could heal your--_ "

" _Yes, you said that. You wanted to heal us,_ " Daniel interrupted, but a tiny part of him was disappointed that this alien creature was showing him his brother, who was alive and could still be saved, instead of his parents, whom he would never otherwise see again. Did that mean he no longer grieved them, despite the ache that had never quite gone away? Had he somehow left his parents behind? A strange feeling washed over him again, and he recognized it, now--it was the energy of Unity, how they read through a person's mind and thoughts to be able to mimic them. " _Stop that_ ," he said sharply.

Immediately, the feeling stopped, and Unity tilted its head at him again. " _You regret your actions. There was nothing you could do for Claire and Mel. You are uncertain about the others. Skaara, Sha'uri._ "

Daniel furrowed his brow. " _What could I have done for them?_ "

But there were, of course, things he could have done differently when he'd seen his brother and sister last. On Klorel's _hatak_ , he could have acted faster and used his _zat'nik'tel_ on Skaara, perhaps even saved him despite the destruction of the ships, brought him to Earth until Thor's Hammer was rebuilt. He could have made decisions faster, walked faster, held tighter, fought harder when they'd found Sha'uri on Abydos.

Unity watched him, and Daniel wondered uneasily whether it could see into his mind all the time, even when he didn't feel it happening.

He picked up his pen again and determinedly wrote, ( _Can access thoughts/memories. Not all at once? Of only one person? Repeatedly scans subject's mind. For confirmation? To refine conclusions?_ ).

" _You cannot change what happened to them,_ " Unity told him calmly, " _just as I cannot change the fate that befell my people. I wished to help you see that._ "

Daniel cleared his throat and switched languages again, because this was gathering information that might be useful to the SGC, not seeking answers for himself, and maybe it would be easier if he stuck with the Tau'ri tongue.

"How long ago did the Goa'uld go to your planet?" Daniel asked.

As if responding to his cue (and of course that was what it was doing; it had looked into his mind, after all, and spoke and acted based on what it had observed from human behavior and from his neural systems), Unity answered in English, "I do not know how to express that quantity."

"Well...how many...uh, revolutions around the sun? Or perhaps, how many..." _generations_ , he almost said, but how would they correlate a crystal's generation to Tau'ri years?

"A long time," Unity said. "We do not perceive as you do."

"Right. I understand. Do you know which Goa'uld it was?"

"His mind was destroyed when we touched him with our energy," Unity said.

Daniel grimaced, but scribbled ( _male Goa'uld?_ ) even though it barely narrowed the possibilities at all, and Goa'uld could take hosts of either gender. Then he added, _(assuming that Unity perceives gender as we do)_. "I'm sorry for your people's loss," he offered. "But you do not die, not the same way that we do. Yes?"

"Yes. Physical death does not have the same meaning for us."

"Then, when the Jaffa attempted to destroy you," Daniel said, thinking of Sam's cracked crystal that had still been imbued with some sort of life even though it had been found in pieces, "they did not truly succeed?"

Unity blinked. "They are not gone forever," he said, and the whispering brush swept again across his mind. "Nor are those you have lost gone."

"Please stop doing that," Daniel said again, raising his free hand. His thoughts and the losses therein were his own. The technician took a step forward, but Daniel shook his head and held up a hand to say no intervention was needed.

"Are you not happy to see your brother again?" Unity said, smiling Skaara's smile the way he smiled in Daniel's memories. "Your protector?"

_Gods, yes. And no. Of course, yes, but not._

Unity reached out tentatively and touched Skaara's band around Daniel's wrist. Daniel jumped up and backed away, raising his hands defensively in front of himself. "Don't. That's...that's, uh...personal boundaries, and...our culture doesn't like that. Without permission. Just, don't."

And it was only then that he realized that Skaara might still be alive, but this part that the Unity being imitated was gone forever. If Skaara could be saved, would he smile again, as easily and as fully? Would he remember what had been done using his body? And Skaara, who had shielded him from children who looked oddly at the foreign little boy with light hair, the brother who dragged him inside before a sandstorm hit the village...

There was so much more to fear now than jeers and storms, and Skaara couldn't be Daniel's protector anymore, not that way. For all he knew, the brother he had once known might be as good as--

Unity gasped and Daniel took another step back in alarm when electricity suffused him. This time, it was beginning to look more like lightning than a simple static shock.

"Radiation levels are rising," the technician said. "It's too dangerous to stay any longer."

"We'll take you back. Soon," Daniel promised loudly over the sound of muffled cries, then reluctantly left the room again, wincing. "Hold on."

XXXXX

**_26 April 1999; P3X-562; 2100 hrs_ **

When they stepped back onto P3X-562, the bit of Unity who looked like Skaara sighed and raised its face to the sun, like it was really Skaara returning to his desert home on Abydos. Then Daniel saw Jack watching the Charlie simulacrum do the same, and the illusion faded quickly.

The wormhole closed behind them. The Unity they had brought back seemed content to remain as they currently were, now that they were back on the planet and there was no more danger of being torn apart by Earth's electromagnetic field. Daniel half-expected them to walk away, back to where they'd taken human form, and leave him and Jack to turn around immediately to return to Earth.

"You may stay if you want," Unity-Charlie said.

"You are welcome here," Unity-Skaara added.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Jack answered, not looking away from his son's face. Daniel tried to imagine that face with a baseball cap over it, the hand in Jack's hand holding a wooden bat, like that photo of Charlie in Jack's house. Neither of them moved to turn and redial the DHD, however, and Jack conceded, "We've got an hour before the general starts to yell at someone. We'll walk you back."

Unity-Charlie wormed a hand into Jack's. Jack paused, his gaze shifting from the boy's face to their entwined hands, then grasped it firmly, gently, tightly. A hand on Daniel's shoulder reminded him of Unity-Skaara, and for a moment, he wanted to pull away, but there was a possibility that this might be the last time he'd feel it, even if it was fake. Maybe he could pretend, just for a few minutes.

He and Jack didn't speak on the way back to the pit, and the Unity didn't try to make them.

It wasn't long before they'd reached the place again, following their tracks until they could see the indentations where they'd been thrown into the sand.

"Thank you," both Unity-beings said simultaneously, and Daniel was reminded yet again of how far they were from human. It didn't stop him from clutching Skaara's hand one more time, feeling the familiar calluses on his hand that he knew had probably already faded on the real Skaara, the one who hadn't been molded from Daniel's memory. Jack hadn't let go yet, either.

It was the being that looked like Skaara who spoke first. It turned to Jack and said, "O'Neill."

"What?" Jack said, partly wary and partly not really caring or paying attention anymore.

There was a pause, and Daniel thought maybe it was thinking, trying to pull out a memory of how Skaara would have spoken with Jack O'Neill, besides knowing the legendary name, but he knew there wasn't much to find in either of their memories. As if acknowledging that, Unity-Skaara only bowed to Jack, clapped Daniel on the shoulder, and withdrew, waiting for the other to follow.

Unity-Charlie didn't speak at all, but looked up at Jack with serious eyes that didn't fit a little boy's face, but maybe they did, and Daniel just didn't know--hadn't known--Charlie to be able to judge. All he knew was that the solemn figure looking up at Jack didn't look like the one who Jack said had loved to laugh and play. Because he wasn't Charlie O'Neill, just like the Unity-Skaara wasn't actually Skaara. The sooner they stopped wearing those faces, the easier it would be to remember that fact.

Jack slowly let go of Unity-Charlie's hand. Unity-Skaara took his place, holding Unity-Charlie's hand in his own. "We should let them..." he started.

"Wait," Daniel blurted, but he didn't have anything to say. Charlie's eyes turned to him for a moment, and Skaara's, too, and he took a deliberate step back, level with Jack as the other two watched them, hand-in-hand. "Right. Yes. Sorry. You should..." He could only gesture toward the partially damaged crystals around them, since there wasn't a proper verb that described the action of turning from a humanoid simulacrum back into a crystal.

"Go on," Jack said.

The beings walked together back to their starting place and, in a dizzying blur, they disappeared and left only two blue crystals behind.

"Huh," Jack said, staring.

"Yeah," Daniel agreed. "Do we...really have an hour before we need to go back?"

It took a few more seconds, but finally, Jack turned to him. "Yeah. Wanna stick around for a while? If we go back, we'll just have reports to write. Doc'll want to run tests to make sure we didn't get fried too much." He hesitated, then said, "I mean, unless you don't feel well..."

"Let's stay a little bit," Daniel interrupted, because he could stand a small, lingering headache if it meant they didn't have to go back and face reality yet, and he let Jack's hand clasp his shoulder and lead him back toward the Stargate. He took a seat in the sand, leaning back against the rim of the Stargate, and this time, Jack sat, too, on the other side. He thought the sun should be setting, just to fit their mood, if nothing else, which was ridiculous and a bit stupid, but the way it burned bright from overhead made the crystals glitter too much to ignore.

"You learn anything?" Jack asked.

"About their race?"

Jack shrugged. "Sure."

"Their perception of the world is very different from ours," Daniel said. "It wasn't able to tell me how long ago they were attacked or by whom. But their race isn't really dead so much as...damaged, I think; they don't seem to experience death the same way humans do."

And then he winced, because wasn't that like saying the crystals weren't dead, not the way Charlie was?

"He wasn't really like that," Jack said, slipping on sunglasses against the glare and leaving his eyes completely hidden. "What you saw today, that wasn't...him. My kid. Could never get him to be serious if we tried."

"No, I never imagined he was like that," Daniel said, pulling his legs toward himself and resting his head sideways on his knees, so he could see Jack. He wished he could say something like that about Skaara, but, for all he knew, Skaara truly _was_ always serious now. "You said Charlie liked playing games?"

"He loved playing," Jack said. "Baseball, especially."

"I guessed that." From a photo in the house, from the way Jack looked at Rya'c when he laughed holding a baseball bat, from the way Jack sometimes saw a baseball game on the television, checked the score, and flipped away to settle on a hockey game instead, but always, always knew how the Chicago Cubs were faring against other teams. "How is...Sara O'Neill?" Daniel asked, not really sure what to call her. Had she kept Jack's name? Was there a term for a former spouse?

Jack made a face. "She'll be okay. She's strong. Little shaken. That hospital we went to...it was where we brought him when he...you know. At the end."

"Oh," Daniel said, and was _glad_ this time that he couldn't say anything like that about Skaara, because at least Skaara--and Sha'uri, and Shifu--was still alive. Charlie, named for free men, was dead; Skaara, named for a field of dead, was alive but not free. He tried to read Jack's expression but couldn't for the sunglasses. "You miss him."

"Oh, yeah," Jack said quietly.

"It's okay," Daniel said, which didn't mean anything, really, but it made Jack give him a half-smile anyway.

"We'll find him," Jack said, and it wasn't Charlie anymore. "Them."

Daniel pursed his lips. "Mm."

"We will."

Jack didn't say things he didn't mean. Daniel had come to realize, however, that sincerity didn't mean it was true or that it would really happen. But he'd also realized that sometimes it was necessary to say it and to believe it, because they all needed something to fight for. Without that, it would be all too easy for everything to become meaningless, no matter how much they fought or translated or studied.

A war was fought by and for and against multitudes, and they needed a few faces, at least, that meant something more, to keep their friends and allies and enemies from becoming faceless masses. SG personnel were deployed as teams, and they protected each other and complemented each other, but they also grounded each other, reminded each other of why they were fighting and why they had to--why they _would_ \--win.

"I know we will," Daniel said.

"If you want to go back to Abydos," Jack said abruptly, "you're not obligated to stay until we find them, you know. We'll keep looking, even if you're not at the SGC. _I'll_ keep looking. That's a promise."

He frowned, trying to process that statement that seemed to have come out of nowhere. "What?" he asked, bewildered and a little indignant as he straightened to stare properly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I talked to the...crystal guy when it still looked like you," Jack said. "It said you wanted to go home, but that you couldn't because you were still looking for Skaara and Sha'uri."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "It...it said that?"

"Yep."

He considered the words carefully, examining motivations that he hadn't reexamined in a long time. "It used to be like that," he admitted. It still was, to some extent, but it wasn't as clear anymore. He'd become an adult at the SGC and found his place there. He had lived in Nagada as his parents' son, a student, but still a child, and he wasn't sure who or what he would be if he went back now. "But even when we find them, and I go back...they won't be the same. Abydos isn't the same, and I'm not, either. I'm not expecting that anymore."

"No, it won't be the same, but you still love the place, Daniel. You can go back if you want."

"Well, it's not that simple. If it were, wouldn't you go back to be with your former wife, then?" he asked. He regretted it as soon as the words were out of his mouth, because it sounded harsh, even cruel, even though he hadn't meant it to.

Jack stared at him through darkened lenses.

"Sorry," Daniel said. "I didn't mean for it to sound so...but it's not that simple, is it? Going back?"

"It was a different life," Jack acknowledged for both of them.

"Yes." He thought that over a second longer and asked, "Would you change it?"

"Can't," Jack said succinctly.

"If you could?"

"Can't change what happened," Jack repeated.

"I know, Jack, but..." He stopped. "Okay."

"Don't think too much about 'what if,' Daniel," Jack told him seriously. "It is what it is."

Daniel nodded, not in agreement so much in acceptance of that viewpoint. It was probably good advice, but he couldn't _not_ think about it, about what the consequences might have been if the Abydos 'gate had never been unburied, if so many things hadn't happened.

"Jinx," Daniel said suddenly. Jack looked at him sideways, and Daniel gave him a small smile to show he was mostly joking. "We have the strangest missions together."

Jack snorted. "Well, they end okay." He squinted upward, then said, "Days must be long on this planet. Why won't the damn sun just set, already? Ruins the mood."

Daniel laughed softly at the repetition of his own sentiments. "It's nighttime back home," he pointed out.

"Yeah." Jack stood with an exaggerated groan. "All right. Time to face the music. Dial it up, Daniel; let's go home."


	27. Epilogue: Stories

**_1 May 1999; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 1100 hrs_ **

Jack looked up at the sound of footsteps to see Daniel yawn his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. "About time you woke up," he said, smirking when Daniel threw him a dirty look and slumped into a chair.

"I'm 'gate-lagged," Daniel grumbled, swiping Jack's coffee mug. "It's about midnight in Nagada right now. Gods. I was 'lagged the whole time I was there, and now that I'm back I'm 'lagged again. How does that make any sense?"

"That's just how it works," Jack said, swiping the coffee back. "How'd it go, the last few days?"

"Janet identified two new species of nematode," he said, resting his head on his palm.

"Nematode?" Jack asked.

"I don't really know," Daniel admitted. "They're some kind of worm or something. One is a parasite, but the other protects plants. Like a symbiote--a symbiotic relationship. She's having trouble making them grow in the lab, but she's optimistic about their uses, and she knows how to treat some of the other parasitic diseases that she found on Abydos. Oh, and we all have a little naquadah in our bloodstreams, but it's more significant in the older people, especially those who used to work in the mines."

"More than you?"

"My levels upon first coming to Earth were on the high end of the range, actually," he said.

That was news. "Really," Jack said, interested. "You're not exactly part of the older generation."

Daniel shrugged. "Janet said it could have to do with individual physiology, early sarcophagus exposure during development--because it _does_ emit some kind of...ionized...naquadah something--"

"Ions?" Jack guessed.

"-- _or_ just spending so much time exploring the mines as a child. She says a low concentration of naquadah seems to kill certain bacteria for some reason and boost the immune system. It could have something to do with Goa'uld symbiotes' healing ability. Somehow. Either way, no one's comfortable injecting naquadah into people just to test."

"I can see why." Jack snorted. "Exploring mines. Only you, kid."

"Don't laugh at me," Daniel said, folding his arms on the table and dropping his head sleepily onto them.

"All good news from home, then?" Jack said, laughing on the inside.

"More or less. How about SG-1--what've you been doing?" He peeked an eye out. "After getting back from being stuck in 1969, I mean. How could you go _back in time_ and not bring me along?"

"You were on Abydos," Jack protested.

"Well, if General Hammond had seen _me_ when he'd been a lieutenant," Daniel grumbled, facedown again, "maybe it would've been easier to get into this program."

Jack hadn't thought of that, actually. "Well...still. It's not like SG-1 can't get into trouble all on our own without you. "

"Mm," Daniel mumbled. "You must be so proud of yourselves."

Jack flicked his ear. "Hey, wake up." Daniel sneezed into his arms. "Take your allergy meds," he added. "And you've been on Abydos all week, so you're making up the training session you missed today."

Finally, Daniel raised his head. "I knew there was a reason I liked staying on base over the weekends."

"That's what happens when you live with the people in charge of training you," Jack pointed out. "And don't think I haven't seen Teal'c chasing you all over the base when it's his turn to deal with you, and you never complain then."

"Teal'c is scarier. He threatens me with sticks."

"Come on, put on your shoes and take your meds. We're going for a run."

...x...

"So," Jack said once they'd come back and showered, "Hammond wants a few more SG teams commissioned."

"Yeah?" Daniel asked, almost done field stripping Jack's gun, slowly but with an increasing familiarity. "Why?"

"So we can do more stuff, basically. He wants another diplomatic team and a couple of military units. The point is, we're going to be adding more technical specialists to the off-world teams."

Daniel paused with the parts laid out on the cloth on the table. "What kind of technical specialists?"

"Mostly engineers and translators," Jack said, as Daniel peered through the barrel before wiping it clean of months-old oil. "Might need you and Dr. Rothman to help with testing the recruits."

"We couldn't say much about the engineers," Daniel said. "You have Sam for that, anyway. But Robert was planning on looking for more cultural experts the next time he's at an academic conference. Most Egyptologists have some familiarity with the Ancient Egyptian language and often other languages, as well as general training as archaeologists and anthropologists."

"That's fine, but more immediately, we're looking for some specialists with military training."

Daniel squinted doubtfully at him. "Are there many cadets studying Egyptology at the Air Force Academy?"

"Probably not," Jack said, "though there _are_ some who've got advanced degrees in that area. And there are plenty of language analysts, and people can learn new languages. They'll have to, anyway, when they find new dialects off-world."

"So, then..."

"Civilians can still train and apply for field positions," Jack assured him.

"Okay, but how exactly are Robert and I supposed to help test military officers?" he asked.

"You leave physical and tactical standards up to us," Jack said, reaching to check each part after Daniel finished with it, just to make sure. "But we need people who can think on their feet if they meet a puzzle in the field, and we want the scenarios to be as realistic as possible. Don't worry," he added, "I won't make you fight anyone for training."

"That's good," Daniel said absently as he started to reassemble.

"Yet," Jack added under his breath.

"What?" Daniel said.

Jack gave him his best innocent look. "I said 'pay attention.'"

"Right," Daniel said suspiciously, but he let it go, turning back to pay more attention to what his hands were doing. He worked carefully, slowly, and still a little hesitantly, but speed would come with practice.

"So, if you and Rothman could make a list of things that you think would reflect off-world issues," Jack continued, "and things you think they should be expected to know, that'd help. Pull some situations--or adapt them--from actual missions or projects for practical tests."

Silence answered him, and Jack wondered for a moment whether these exercises in distraction were too distracting, but then Daniel handed the pistol to Jack for inspection. "Okay. I can think of a few right now. It would help if we knew what you usually do to the recruits..."

"What do you mean, 'what we usually _do to_ them'?" Jack asked as he checked to make sure everything was in place. "You make it sound like we're torturing them."

Daniel raised his eyebrows at him. "I've heard the new people complaining about their testing. Apparently, you're mean."

"I'm _mean_?" Jack repeated. "I approved someone whose best insult was that I'm 'mean?'"

"No, that was my version; he was much less polite," Daniel assured him. "But I was asking so that we have a general idea of what you're looking for."

"Well, I brought some stuff back with me, too," Jack said. "I'll let you read over what kinds of things we've done in the past. Go and wash your hands--I'll put this away."

...x...

**_2 May 1999; O'Neill/Jackson Residence, Earth; 1000 hrs_ **

Jack checked his watch, not sure who might be at his door. With a shrug, he stood and pulled the door open. "Sara," he said, only half-surprised once he saw her face.

Sara stood awkwardly on the step, dressed in what he recognized as slightly more than casual for her. Businesslike, almost. "Hi, Jack," she answered. "Can I come in?"

"Ah..." he said, then stepped back. "Yeah, sure."

She gave him a tight, polite smile, then squeezed past him and into the house. He closed the door, and when he turned around, she was looking into the kitchen as if assessing it, and Jack was suddenly very conscious of plates still unwashed in the sink and two empty mugs that hadn't even been brought to the sink yet. It was dumb--she wasn't here to judge his housekeeping skills--but he had a good idea of why she _was_ here.

"So," he said, "can I get you something to drink, or..."

"Some water would be nice," Sara said, sounding completely calm, though he knew her well enough to see that she was as uncomfortable as he was.

Water was easy. There was never much in the way of perishable foods around the house, but water was plentiful, a fact that, even after over a year, sometimes still made Daniel pause. "Why don't you come into the living room," Jack invited. She nodded and followed him to a couch. "How are you?"

"I'd rather not beat around the bush," she said as she sat.

Jack studied her expression warily. "Okay."

She dipped her head for a minute, and when she raised her eyes again, they were steely and determined. "I came for an explanation, Jack. I think I deserve that much."

And she did, of course she did. How was it right for her to see a walking, talking copy of her son--a copy of _their son_ \--and then get fed some line about _'classified, can't say_ '? That wasn't fair to anyone. "Yes. You do. But--"

"What was that thing?" she interrupted. "I know what--who it looked like, but..."

"It wasn't him."

Sara gave him a severe look. "Yes, I managed to figure that one out all on my own," she said dryly, but with more than a hint of a bite in the words.

Jack tightened his jaw. She knew this routine, knew how the job worked, knew the position she was putting him in just by asking, and knew what he would inevitably have to say. And she knew Jack, knew _him_ \--she must know how much he'd want to say this, how much it meant to him, too, had to know he wasn't being evasive without good reason. "You know I can't say anything."

"It's classified," she said flatly. It wasn't a question, so Jack didn't answer. "Top secret, matter of national security, hush-hush, confidential..."

"Sara--"

"I know how this works," she said, her voice dropping to an intense quiet. "But...my god, Jack--you people can't barge into _my_ life with _my_ ex-husband and _son_ and then forget about me!"

"It wasn't--"

"It wasn't him, I know. So who the hell _was_ it? Why did I see someone who looked exactly like you, who knew everything you knew, and when I turned around, it was Charlie? And what in the world is Stargate?" She exhaled. "No, I don't care about Stargate. You want to keep that under wraps, fine, but... I was promised an explanation. And all anyone can tell me is that they can't tell me anything?"

Jack opened his mouth to say, _'yes, that's all I can tell you,'_ but then closed it, because he wasn't sure that the next words out of his mouth wouldn't be _'no, I'll tell you everything._ '

A sneeze sounded from the top of the staircase, and then footsteps, descending quickly as a congested voice called, "Hey, Jack, I just thought of something about--"

"Daniel, wait..." Jack called back quickly.

"--that time on P3X--"

" _Jackson_!"

The words cut off with another sneeze. Daniel appeared around the railing, rubbing at an eye and looking confused, until his gaze lit on Sara. "Oh," he said, his eyes widening and a notepad flipping shut. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear--" He stopped abruptly, looking from Sara's startled expression to the bookshelf where a photo stood, even though there was no way he could see it from his angle. "Oh. Oh! Uh, I'll...uh, I'll just..." He flushed and pointed in the direction from which he'd come. "Sorry."

"No, _I'm_ sorry," Sara said, standing stiffly. "I didn't realize you had company, Jack."

"No, no, no, no," Daniel said quickly. "I'm not--please don't...it's not that"--he sneezed again and blinked--"not that important. I'll stay out of the way until you're. Done. With the." He gulped and looked to Jack. "Um."

Jack closed his eyes for a minute and reopened them, between relief and dismay at the interruption. "Sara, don't go. This is Daniel, a friend and a...coworker. Daniel, Sara O'Neill."

With another glance at Jack, Daniel stepped forward to shake her hand. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am," Daniel said politely, almost the exact same words as the first words he'd spoken to Jack on Abydos two years ago.

"Call me Sara," she answered slowly.

"Sara," Daniel amended, still with an eye on Jack.

"A coworker of Jack's?" Sara asked dubiously, her gaze unerringly finding the shape of his dog tags through his thin shirt--wearing them, again, for lack of pockets in his sweats. "You're in the Air Force?"

There was barely a pause before Daniel answered, "No, I just work _for_ the Air Force--a civilian intern with the linguists and the diplomatic staff." He gave her a nervous smile. "I'm very sorry for interrupting your..." He looked between her and Jack, his expression practically screaming ' _sorry, sorry, sorry--leaving right now._ ' "...your conversation," he finished.

"I don't suppose," Sara continued, "that you would know about what happened earlier this week?"

Jack froze. Daniel did, too, flicking another glance at him, and then babbled, "Yes, I remember that. And everyone regrets very much that you were pulled into it, in such an invasive way--we didn't expect at _all_ that something like that would happen...but...but none of us completely understands how it happened. I know how that sounds, but we did our best and really weren't able to understand the phenomenon completely, but it's...the situation is definitely contained now, so you'll never have to...and...so the." He shut his mouth abruptly, cutting off any further rambling that might lead to something he _really_ wasn't supposed to say. Jack breathed again.

Sara stared at him suspiciously until he started to fidget, and then said, "I see."

"I'm sorry," Daniel said again, edging away. "I should really leave you to talk. I just came down to get...but I can come back..."

"Your meds are in the kitchen," Jack told him.

"Right," Daniel said, then all but ran to retrieve his antihistamines and retreated up the stairs.

Once he'd gone, Sara turned to Jack again. "He's young."

"Yeah," Jack said, because there was no lie that would hide that.

"Impressive. You've got him trained to toe the line already."

"I didn't tell him to say that," Jack said, trying not to bristle or to scoff at the idea that Daniel, of all people, toed any line but his own. "He really shouldn't have said as much as he did, in fact. But everything he said was actually true."

"I've gotten pretty damn good at knowing when something's being covered up, Jack," she said.

"And you've always been able to tell when it's the truth, too," he said.

"You won't tell me _anything_?" she asked. "Was that thing...some kind of robot or something? I saw the electric shocks, and the way he was acting, like he wasn't even human..." She laughed a little desperately. "Was it some twisted cloning experiment? Christ, I mean, is this what you do, do you see things like that all the time?"

Jack shook his head. "I've never seen anything like that before," he said truthfully.

"Jack..." She sighed. "I get it, okay. I don't really care what you're doing in that mountain. Just tell me you aren't doing some...experiment using our son. I have to know that."

He felt his eyes widen at the implication. "For cryin' out loud, Sara! I would never--" He took a second to think about what the possible explanations were and let out a slow breath. What was she supposed to think, after all? "What you saw was not... It didn't come from _our_ work. We were just as surprised as you were, believe me. The only thing we had to do with it was making sure it never happens again. And it had nothing to do with our Charlie. I would never let that happen."

She pressed her lips together. "You know, for a few seconds, when I saw him...I almost...I thought--"

"I know," he whispered.

"And seeing him _there_ , of all places..."

"I know. I'm sorry."

She nodded shortly. "Me too. I...I should go."

Sighing, Jack started, "Sara--"

She stood. "I know, Jack, I know. It's not about... Look, I remember this dance. I just...can't play along right now. You understand."

Jack understood. They always understood, even when they didn't or couldn't know; that was the way this worked. He nodded. Sara replaced her bottle of water on the table, unopened.

When they were at the door, he plunged his hands into his pockets and said, "Sara--how have you been? I would have...called."

She stopped with her hand halfway to the doorknob, gave him a tight smile, and said, "You should have. But I've been okay, Jack. How are you?"

"Okay," he said. "Good. Glad to hear--good." She waited another second, smiled sadly, and pulled him into a brief hug. Then she opened the door and left.

...x...

"I'm sorry," Daniel said immediately, when Jack knocked on his door. "I didn't know she was..."

"Not your fault," Jack said. "Bad timing."

Daniel looked past him into the empty hallway. "She left?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't know she was coming, or I wouldn't have--"

"Wouldn't've changed anything," Jack told him. "Carter taught you to babble as a cover?"

"She said it works," he admitted. "I didn't know what to say."

"It's all right. So what were you going to say before when you came downstairs?"

There was a long pause, and then Daniel finally said, "It was just a question about the training scenarios you mentioned. That's all. Like I said, it's not...urgently important. Robert sent an e-mail with some possible projects to use as a basis..." He had a sheet of paper in his hand, looking unsure whether to hand it over.

"Fine," Jack said, taking it from him. "I'll give you guys more details about what we want. Actually, I've been thinking you might be able to help with the testing portion itself, but we'll see how the general wants to run it. Don't worry too much about it for now." When Daniel only nodded silently, he added, "This thing today, it'll happen again. One day, it might be someone _you_ know asking you something you're not allowed to say. Let it go. There was no good way for that to go."

Daniel folded his arms and nodded, clearly only partially convinced. "It must be hard, never being allowed to tell. Or never being allowed to know. Especially--" He stopped. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Jack said. "You learn. It _will_ happen again, kid. That's how it goes." Jack waited for him to nod again, then left the room for his own. He closed the door behind himself, knowing Daniel wouldn't intrude for a while. He checked to see that his pistol was secured, unloaded, safe, then slumped into a chair with a sigh.

He sat until the sound of the kitchen sink and quietly clinking plates and cups reminded him he wasn't alone, then pushed himself to his feet and went to join his friend.

XXXXX

**_5 May 1999; SGC, Earth; 0800 hrs_ **

All three of them were staring intently at Carter's laptop, and none of them noticed his presence when he walked in. Daniel and Teal'c were both holding a cookie in one hand, but the food seemed to have been forgotten in favor or whatever they were watching. "Exciting movie?" Jack asked, and finally Carter raised her head.

"Records from the Pentagon, sir," she said.

"Ah. _Not_ exciting." He stopped and stared at Daniel. "Whoa. What happened to _you_?"

Daniel grimaced. So did Carter. "I took him to the barber last night, sir," she said.

"There was this device in the lab," Daniel explained, scratching self-consciously at his shortened hair. "Sam and the engineers were working on it, and I was trying to translate the words on the side of it. You know how I was saying a couple of weeks ago that there are some technologies that respond to vocal commands?"

"What did you do?" Jack asked warily.

"Apparently, that device responded to the word ' _kek_ ,'" Daniel said, brushing at a lock of hair that no longer existed.

"Which means...?"

"Well..." Daniel swallowed.

"'Kill' or 'death,'" Teal'c supplied. "In most cases."

Jack sighed. "What did you do?" he asked again.

"It kind of blew up, sir," Carter admitted.

"Just 'kind of?'"

"Actually...yes. We'd taken out some of the core already, so the fire was easily contained and extinguished."

Jack took a closer look at her and caught sight of a mild burn on her arm. "Let me guess," he said. "Daniel was closest, and his hair was a casualty."

"Sergeant Siler was closer," Daniel offered. "But Janet said he'll be fine in a few days."

Carter gave him a sheepish glance and refocused on her laptop. Teal'c gave him a look that said, _'I know exactly how you feel.'_

"So," Jack said, resisting the urge to bang his head against a wall or laugh out loud at them all, "you decided to watch movies from the Pentagon, because nothing else could possibly match that level of excitement?"

"Oh, just wait, Jack," Daniel said, enthusiastic again. He claimed the mouse and rewound the black-and-white footage. "Did you know they worked on the Stargate as early as the 1940s? The Pentagon sent these records to us over a year ago, but there are hours of video and no one's had the time to watch more than the very beginning."

More like no one had had the patience to watch it all--what could there possibly be in research fifty years old that the current scientists hadn't already read or figured out themselves? "Until you got your hands on them, of course," Jack said dryly, moving so he could see what they were watching. " _This_ is why you stayed on base last night?"

"Mm-hm."

"And...Carter, are those...?"

"Chocolate-walnut, sir," Carter said, pushing a bag of homemade cookies toward Jack. Daniel pulled it back toward himself, and Teal'c reached over the top of his head to claim it. Jack snatched the cookie out of Daniel's hand instead.

"Healthy breakfast," Jack said, taking a big bite before Daniel could grab it back.

"Oh, is it morning?" Daniel said as Carter glanced at her watch.

Jack snorted. "How long have you people spent watching repeated failure?"

"They did not fail, O'Neill," Teal'c told him. "They simply did not know it at the time."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "What? What's that supposed to mean?"

Daniel gave him a quick smile and clicked 'PLAY.'

"Manually dialing the 'gate," Jack commented. "Ah, the good old days. Don't miss 'em a bit."

"Just watch, sir--it gets better," Carter said. She shook her head in wonder. "The probability of their finding a working address by random chance was phenomenally small."

He gave her a sharp look. "You're not telling me--"

On the monitor, an unstable vortex _kawhoosh_ ed out, and Jack let his sentence trail off. He received three _'I told you so'_ looks.

Turning back to the video, he watched a man in what looked like a diving suit walk into the event horizon, several other men holding a tether that was attached to his suit.

"Oh, God," Jack said, realizing what was about to happen a second before the wormhole closed and the tether was cut off.

The monitor went blank and then looped back to the beginning. Carter paused it again.

"They only had the barest idea of how it worked or what it was supposed to do," she said. "They probably only understood that they'd lost a man, and even if they'd sent someone else after him, they'd have had almost zero chance of getting back to earth without knowing how the DHD works or how to dial back."

"They didn't," Daniel added. "Didn't send someone else, I mean. I went through every report of everything they sent, and there's nothing following this incident. It looks like that might be why they shut the program down and didn't reopen it again for decades."

"Then that man's been stuck there for...over fifty years," Jack said. If he was still alive, even. "Do we know what that address was?"

"That's why Daniel brought this to Teal'c and me," Carter said. "I've almost finished identifying all of the glyphs by computer enhancement of the footage, and then we can see if it matches anywhere we know."

"Who was he?"

Daniel shook his head. "The written records stop before that...uh, experiment happened. I've found the names of the scientists, but there's no way to match a name to the face. But...what about..."

"What?" Jack prompted.

"My parents used to talk a lot about Dr. Catherine Langford. I know she was the one who restarted the program leading up to Abydos '82, and her father was the one who uncovered the Stargate at Giza. He was in charge of this," Daniel added, gesturing toward the monitor. "I can't imagine that she wouldn't know."

Carter was nodding enthusiastically. "Yes, I worked with Catherine when we were developing the dialing computers a few years ago. She doesn't have clearance, but I don't see why that can't be changed."

"We're not exactly afraid she'll find out about the top secret Stargate," Jack agreed, and now Catherine's name had been mentioned, he was a little ashamed that no one had thought to contact her sooner. He himself hadn't been involved with the research done on Stargate dialing between the two Abydos trips, so he hadn't seen her in over a decade, since he'd told her after the first mission that her two protégés were still alive and well and living on another planet. It didn't seem right that she, of all people, should be kept completely out of the loop.

"Well, she might know who that man in the video is," Daniel pointed out. "Could we ask the general to get her clearance?"

"I don't see why not," Jack said. "Restricted access, maybe, since she's not fully involved in the program anymore, but I don't see the general turning it down."

"Got it," Carter said, moving aside so they could see snapshots of the glyphs enhanced and blown up. "This is the address they accidentally dialed."

After a moment's thought, Daniel said, "It might be close to Abydos. It's almost the same address, but with Sagittarius replaced by Aquila. If it's as close to Earth as Abydos is, planetary shift wouldn't have been a problem. But I don't recognize the coordinates."

"Teal'c?" Jack said.

"It is unfamiliar to me, as well," Teal'c said after another moment.

"I recognize this one," Carter said. "At least, I think I do."

Daniel frowned, as if displeased that he hadn't, in fact, memorized every address known to Stargate Command. "Which planet is it?"

"I think this was one of the ones left from the Ancient database, not the Abydos cartouches."

"So it's not a Goa'uld planet," Jack said.

"No, sir, probably not," she said. "But there's another problem. I'll double-check, but I think we tried to dial into this address just a few weeks ago and couldn't get a lock."

"Why not?" Daniel asked.

Carter grimaced. "Any number of reasons, you know that. Maybe the 'gate was buried."

"Or destroyed," Teal'c said.

"Either way," she said, "we can't get through."

"Oh," Daniel said.

XXXXX

**_7 May 1999; Langford Residence; 1000 hrs_ **

"You let a strange man in the house?"

"Yes, I'm sorry--he says he knows you."

The voices reached them before they saw her. Jack stood as she walked into the room, and Daniel followed a second later. "Catherine," Jack said.

Dr. Catherine Langford stopped in her tracks, gaping. "Jack O'Neill? Is that you?"

"It's good to see you again," he said, torn between a friendly greeting and standing at attention. "It's been a while."

"It's been...sixteen and a half years," she corrected. "Has something happened?"

"Yes, actually," Jack said bluntly. "General George Hammond replaced General West, for one, and he has authorized me to update you on a few things concerning the Stargate." When she only waited, he finished, "Catherine, we've restarted the program."

Catherine looked alarmed, then a little suspicious. "They made me retire a few years ago. Why now? Did something happen? And why am _I_ being told?"

"Why don't we sit down," Jack suggested, and it was only then that she seemed to notice Daniel's presence. She looked as though she were about to ask, then changed her mind and sat. "As for why you're being told...it was decided that you shouldn't be kept out of the loop, considering how much of your life you devoted to the project."

"It was decided," she repeated flatly.

Jack gave Daniel a sideways look. "It was convinced," he amended.

"You went back to Abydos. When?"

"In October of 1997."

"19--" Catherine gave him an accusing look. "That's almost two years ago! And you're just telling me now?" She shook her head, then asked, "Did you see Melburn? And Claire?"

Jack nodded solemnly, hearing Daniel shift next to him. "That's the other reason we came. You were the only other person who knew they were still living there. Catherine...I'm sorry. They were killed shortly after we went through and met them."

"Oh my god," Catherine said, pressing a hand to her heart. "Killed?"

"There was an attack," Jack said as gently as he possibly could with news like this. "They fought back with the Abydons. You worked closely with them for a while there, and I thought you should know that they died as heroes, to the Abydons and to us."

She took a settling breath. "And that...that's why the program has been restarted?"

"It's related," Jack said. "As it turns out, the Stargate goes all over the galaxy, not just to Abydos. Earth was attacked by the same aliens that attacked Abydos, and we've been trying to learn more about them ever since."

"What about..." Her gaze settled on Daniel. "You're their son," she said, not as a question.

Daniel glanced at Jack, then looked back. "Yes, Dr. Langford," he said. "How did you..."

"You take after them," she told him with a hint of a sad smile. "And I know they were hoping to find somewhere to start a life for themselves, away from..." She waved a hand vaguely. "Away from all of this. You were born there, then." He nodded, wearing an expression that was more curious than surprised. "I guess they found their new life," she said. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"I." Daniel nodded uncertainly, eyes darting away and then back. "Thank you."

"Were they happy?"

"They..." he tilted his head, then gave her a tentative smile. "Yes. They were. They were very happy there. How did... They told you they were planning to stay on Abydos?"

"Oh, no," Catherine said. "Not in so many words--obviously, no one knew what they would find. But...I think they were hoping. Always had big, romantic dreams of finding something like that." After looking over him for another moment, she turned to include Jack. "Now, tell me what you're doing with Melburn's boy...ah...?"

"Daniel," Jack filled in.

Catherine nodded and studied Daniel's face again. "There must be quite a story to tell."

His eyes lit up. "I've heard a lot about you," he said. "My father said you said you saved their life when you recruited them."

"Nonsense," she said briskly. "They were young and resourceful--they would have found a job somewhere whether or not I came along."

"All the same, Doctor, I'm glad you did," Daniel told her, sounding almost shy, and Jack wondered how many childhood tales he'd heard about the legendary Dr. Catherine Langford.

Catherine melted and gave him a warm smile. Then she turned to Jack and scowled at him. "And what do you think you're doing, not telling me right away that you'd opened the Stargate again?"

"Ah..." Jack said.

"That's what I thought," she said. "I devoted _decades_ of my life to that project, you know. I can't believe no one thought I deserved to know."

"We can show you now," Daniel spoke up.

"That's the other reason why we're here," Jack clarified. "If you wouldn't mind the trip, we can show you our little operation, give you a tour..."

"I have a lot of questions I've been hoping to ask you," Daniel added timidly.

"Well, so have I, young man, and it's about time someone invited me over," Catherine said, drawing herself up sternly, though the excited twinkle in her eye made her look about as old as Daniel. "What are we waiting for?"

XXXXX

**_7 May 1999; SGC, Earth; 1300 hrs_ **

"Catherine!" Carter greeted happily when they reached the briefing room, where General Hammond, the flagship team, and their head archaeologist waited.

"Samantha," Catherine returned with a bright grin. She was a little more wary when General Hammond walked toward her. "General."

"Dr. Langford," Hammond said politely.

She shook his hand but glanced at Jack in question. "Oh, he's not like West was," Jack assured her, keeping an eye on his CO to catch the reaction when he added, "He's a teddy bear." He received pursed lips and a glare for that one, but he decided not to take it personally. "And this," Jack said, turning to the other member of his team, "is Teal'c."

Teal'c bowed formally.

Catherine leaned forward excitedly to shake his hand. "They were telling me about you on the way here."

"I am honored to make your acquaintance," the Jaffa said.

"You speak so well," Catherine said, surprised and fascinated.

"When it is appropriate," Teal'c told her.

When she released Teal'c's hand, he stiffened and glanced at Daniel, who grinned at him and said, " _Wedjat. Chel nak?_ "

Jack started to remind him that it wasn't polite to speak in foreign languages around guests, but Catherine said, "That's right. You recognize the _wedjat_ eye, then."

"Indeed," Teal'c responded, his expression becoming at once both more respectful and more wary.

When he saw the others' curious looks, Daniel explained, "Oh, it's just..." He pointed at his own chest and then at the necklace Catherine was wearing. "The Eye of Horus, or of Ra. It's said to be the sign of the gods, but it was good luck for _us_ instead, wasn't it? My parents said that necklace played a part in starting the Great Rebellion."

"It is further proof that the Goa'uld are not all-powerful gods," Teal'c agreed.

Catherine fingered her necklace. "That's right," she said. "I gave it to Melburn before they left."

"And he gave it to Claire after we were done," Jack added, remembering. They'd all been a little drunk then--some of them drunk on the success of the Rebellion and most of them on strong Abydonian booze--and she'd only just remembered in the morning to give it to Jack to give to Catherine. _'Tell her it brought us good luck,'_ they'd said.

"It brought us good luck," Daniel said, like a line from a favorite bedtime story.

Catherine smiled back. "I haven't taken it off since."

"Where was that found?" Rothman asked. "That looks like another artifact found in, uh, Giza, I think, in the early 1900s."

"I'm sorry, I don't think we've met," Catherine said, turning to him.

"This is Dr. Robert Rothman," Hammond said as Rothman stood so fast he almost tripped. "He's taken over in the Egyptology and archaeology arena."

"Dr. Langford," Rothman said, "I've heard so much about you. I've read almost all of your work." Catherine raised her eyebrows. "I--I mean, I did a masters thesis on work relating to your research on the Giza excavations. And of course I've read everything you've done with the program here."

"I see," she said, looking amused as she took a seat. "I'm glad to see the military hasn't locked archaeologists out of the program. To be honest, General, I was almost expecting that to be the case when I heard the Stargate was back online."

"There's no danger of that happening, Doctor," Hammond assured her.

"Catherine," Jack said, "I admit we may have had a...tiny question for you."

She took half a second to look surprised before nodding sagely. "An ulterior motive. They only ever want me for my brain," she said conspiratorially to Carter, who grinned back. "Go ahead."

Hammond smiled. "Were you aware of research done on the Stargate before our program was started?"

"In the 1940s, up until 1945," Daniel added.

"Yes," she said easily. "My father and a team--mostly physicists--tried to make it activate. But they stopped their work in 1945, like you said. They never succeeded. Of course, from what I'm hearing about the...the planetary shift issue, I suppose they never had a chance."

So she _didn't_ know after all. Jack glanced sideways at the general, whose expression remained impassive. "Okay," Daniel said. "I was looking over past records and was very surprised to find out that there had been testing at all. Even General Hammond didn't know the details until recently."

"I think it was even more classified than it is now," Catherine said, "and records weren't as easily organized. If it weren't for my father--and the fact that I knew some of the people working on it--I wouldn't have known it was happening, either."

"We were wondering--" Daniel started.

"Do you know why they stopped?" Jack interrupted smoothly. "Big discovery. Takes a lot of work to turn that thing over and over, and a lot of drive to want to do it. Must've been something big to make them give up."

She pursed her lips, folding her hands on the table. "Well. There was an accident. An explosion--precautions and regulations back then weren't quite the same as they are now. One of the scientists was killed, and I suppose it made them realize they were flying blind."

Carter nodded sympathetically. "Was it someone you knew?"

After a moment, Catherine smiled sadly. "Ernest Littlefield. My fiancé."

Jack felt Daniel's eyes snap to him but forced himself to ignore it as he said, "I'm sorry we had to bring that up, Catherine. Thanks for helping us set the record straight. We're doing our best to make sure nothing like that ever happens again."

"Well," Catherine said, "of course it won't, not with Samantha here to make sure things are running properly." Carter hesitated little, then gave her a smile.

"Thank you, Doctor," Hammond said. "Now, I'm afraid there are areas here that are unsafe, but you're welcome to look into other sections--Dr. Rothman and Mr. Jackson, I'm sure, would be willing to show you some of the archaeological discoveries that have been made."

She opened her mouth to answer, but Lieutenant Simmons' voice called over the PA, " _Incoming wormhole!_ "

Jack stood, hearing and seeing the rest do the same. Catherine was up, too, but she was looking out the window, where the Stargate had started to turn.

"SG-9 is scheduled to return," Hammond said, and the room relaxed noticeably as Simmons added, " _SG-9's IDC received_."

"My God," Catherine breathed, her hands pressed against the window as the iris opened to show the shimmering, blue event horizon as Kovachek stepped through onto the ramp, followed by his team. "I never thought I'd see it again."

"I should go greet them," Hammond said. "Doctor, we can't tell you how much we appreciate your contributions here."

"Dr. Langford, we can show you around," Rothman offered.

Jack caught Daniel's arm before he followed them to the elevator. "We tried the address again," he said quietly. "No lock."

Daniel lowered his voice as well. "So Ernest Littlefield is lost."

"She's already grieved," Jack said. "You understand?"

"But--"

"We're going to talk it over," he added, gesturing toward where the general was returning. "Until we decide..."

Daniel bit his lip, looking troubled, but nodded. "I won't say anything."

XXXXX

**_14 May 1999; SGC, Earth; 1300 hrs_ **

Someone was snickering when Jack approached Rothman and Daniel's office. " _Kal tek, Teal'c_ ," Daniel scoffed. " _Ona ne'naé hasshak, shek kree_."

Inside, Daniel was leaning back in his chair, his legs crossed on the chair seat in front of him. Teal'c stood at what Jack would call parade rest in anyone else and was about as relaxed as it got for Teal'c. He answered shortly in Goa'uld. Daniel started, looking at Teal'c suspiciously, then leaned back again and laughed.

When Teal'c turned around and saw Jack, Daniel noticed his presence, too. "Hey," Jack said. "What are you two giggling about?"

"Oh, um, it's...wasn't about you, Jack," Daniel said quickly, which was somehow not very reassuring. Teal'c said something else in Goa'uld, and Daniel smirked, ducking his head until his face was wiped clear.

"What--what?" Jack said.

Someone walked past him into the office--the new, fresh-faced civilian archaeologist, Blinky, Binsky, something like that--and told him, "I think they were talking Jaffa weaponry, Colonel, nothing suspicious."

"Aw, Cameron, you ruined it," Daniel complained as the archaeologist--Balinsky, that was it--pulled a book from the shelf, chuckling.

"You need this for the next hour or so?" Balinsky asked.

Daniel barely glanced at it before saying, "Not me."

"Don't you two have work to do?" Jack asked, stepping in as the archaeologist left with a gigantic reference tome in his hands. "Especially you, kid. Aren't you supposed to be busier when Rothman's off-world?"

Daniel dropped his feet to the floor. "I was supposed to make an assessment on some symbols that SG-1 found on some world with some interesting people who didn't speak any language they recognized. But I seem to be missing someone's report, Jack."

"Ah," Jack said, hiding his smile along with his chagrin. " _That_ report."

"Wasn't it supposed to be filed this morning?" Daniel asked.

"I'll do it soon," Jack said. "Besides, there's not really much in it that wouldn't be in Teal'c or Carter's." Nothing to do with the symbols, anyway. "Seriously, were you guys making fun of me before?"

"We were not, O'Neill," Teal'c said. "I was relating a folktale of my people."

"It's similar to an Abydonian one," Daniel said, "but I still think he's making up the part about the knives and the falling rocks."

Jack raised his eyebrows, looking from one to the other and unable to tell which of them was trying to pull whose leg this time. "Right."

"What about you--what are you doing here?"

"I believe O'Neill is attempting to avoid writing his report," Teal'c said.

"Funny," Jack told them sourly. "Next time someone accuses you guys of an alien conspiracy, I'll back 'em up."

Teal'c looked like he might take offense at that, but Daniel shrugged and pointed out, "It would be harder to make that believable anymore, now that more people around here are learning Goa'uld and Abydonian."

"Who's learning Abydonian?" Carter asked as she knocked and slipped in.

"Well, _I_ think everyone should," Daniel said.

"Oh, here we go," Jack muttered.

Daniel gave him a look. "It could be helpful. You're all at an advantage, since you have Teal'c on your team, but I've heard about all sorts of odd blunders teams have made by linguistic accident. Once, when I went with SG-2, we asked someone for a spare duck."

Jack frowned. "You what?"

"Well, not on purpose. It was an odd language," he added defensively. "I was still learning it."

"We've done things like that, too," Carter said. "There was that time when we needed to ask some people a few questions for clarification. Teal'c was guarding our camp at the moment, so the colonel and I had to make do with the bits and pieces of Abydonian that we know. We tried to ask about their stone quarries."

"And...?"

Teal'c smirked. "O'Neill in fact requested that they present their battle axes."

Daniel made an _'oh'_ face. "That's...impressive. You know, anytime you want someone to go with you to help translate, so it's not always on Teal'c..."

"Yeah, we know," Jack said, some amusement fading away. "You wait and see."

He wrinkled his brow, looking from Jack to Teal'c and then to Carter. "Wait and see what?"

"Wait and see, Mr. Jackson," Jack repeated. "So anyone here have lunch yet?"

"What?" Daniel asked, thrown by the change in topic.

"Lunch. Sustenance. Food."

Daniel looked up at the clock. "Oh. We haven't," he said, indicating Teal'c and himself.

"I've been running diagnostics all morning," Carter said.

Jack shrugged. "I'm procrastinating, you're waiting for me to finish procrastinating, Carter's running diagnostics...c'mon. You can tell us the folktale while we eat."

"Uh," Daniel said, holding up a finger as he came to his feet, "you really don't want to hear it while you eat." He made a mark on one of the folders on his desk and moved it over to Rothman's pile of stuff. "And I was just kidding about the procrastinating. Sam already gave me the video she took of the symbols, so I don't really need your report, Jack."

As they trooped out and headed for the commissary, Daniel waited for Carter and Teal'c to be engaged in some conversation or other before turning to Jack and asking, "Have you tried Ernest Littlefield's planet again?"

"Yeah," Jack confirmed. "Twice over the last week, just in case." Carter had spat out a few improbable but possible theories that gave them reason to keep trying: the 'gate was immersed in water and might be open occasionally when the tide was out; there was a local superstition that kept it buried only at certain times; the calculations were off and had to be readjusted. No one liked the idea of leaving a man stranded out there, and plenty of people were interested to know what they could find on non-Goa'uld planets.

"And...?" Daniel prompted.

Jack shook his head. "No."

Daniel chewed his lip. "He was a brave man. Do you think...should we have told Dr. Langford?"

"The general decided to tell her before she left," Jack said.

"Really?"

They hadn't been sure whether to tell her--that her father had lied to her, that her fiancé might have been alive and alone for fifty years, and that they finally knew and couldn't even go through to find him and bring him back. What was the point? But--"She deserved to know he went out as a bona fide hero, not just in a random accident." She'd taken it well enough, though, and it had earned them a little more respect from her, too, for not hiding it.

"He deserved for the world to know," Daniel said.

"The world _can't_ know," Jack reminded him.

"I understand; it just doesn't seem right. No one will ever know his story, or the story of other people here who gave their lives."

"We know it," Jack said. "The people here know it. Maybe one day, the project will be declassified, and the whole world will know it."

"And until then?" he asked.

Jack dropped his hand on Daniel's shoulder and steered him into the elevator after Carter and Teal'c. "Until then, we make sure it wasn't wasted. We move on. All right?"

Daniel glanced at the other two. Carter was still talking, but she paused to give him a smile, and Teal'c nodded minutely, so that Jack wondered if they'd been listening the whole time. "All right," Daniel agreed. "There are many stories left to tell."

**XXXXX**

**FIN**

**XXXXX**


End file.
